We had some fun swimming today. The photos aren’t the best, but they were taken with a camera phone at an indoor pool. There is only so much that can be done to help that. The water was so warm it was like bath water. Everyone had a blast and enjoyed the water at their own pace. I dunked Julia once and gave her the opportunity to bob her face into the water which she only did twice. She enjoyed the pool/Mommy time a lot! Emily was a fish in the water. She is confident in her floaties and would kick and swim herself around the pool. We need to work on jumping into the pool and getting her face into the water more, but I couldn’t be more pleased with how well she did today. If we could go back tomorrow, I would – maybe soon!

Emily really enjoyed her flotation devices when swimming!

Today, we ran some errands in the car and Emily got to eat several snacks while we traveled. The first snack was a bag of pretzels. I watched in the rear view mirror as she figured out that the salty crumbly remains of the bottom of the bag were quite yummy. She would dig her finger into the pool of crumbs and them put them in her mouth. She did it over and over with joy. Later, when I got the bag out for the trash I found that she had eaten all of the crumbs.

Later, we got a popcorn snack for the trip home. Luckily, I split the bag with her because part way through her portion she poured all of the popcorn out of the bag onto her lap. Again, I got the front row view of the whole event throughthe rear view mirror. I don’t know if she started it on purpose, but I know she finished pouring it out on purpose. She just looked at the pile for a little while. Then she picked up a few and alternately put them back in the bag and ate them. It was pretty slow going and she became upset at the mess she made. I pulled over and helped her clean it up when I had an opportunity. I’m hoping she learned that pouring it out was fun, but sitting in it for a little while wasn’t fun.

We are enjoying a simple vacation to Miami with a little spoiling. Daddy didn’t get to come on the trip, so the girls are getting to enjoy all of the fun. Julia was just introduced to pool and loved it. It was fun to watch a little one who has no fears of the world when in safe arms.

Emily has been really cautious in the water. She wants to be held by an adult while she is in the water, even though she was wearing the floaties. Yesterday she allowed Uncle Doug to jump into the water while holding her. She loved the ‘safe’ fun. Today when we went out we introduced the circle float, Emily found that floating on her own was actually fun. She would kick her feet to move around the pool and even ventured into the deep end. She did so well. I was pleased that she was enjoying her freedom and the pool.

Tomorrow will bring little cousins. It will be busy and fun. Hopefully Julia will enjoy the extra arms to hold her and Emily will want to imitate the boldness of the big kids in the water.

Emily and I went to our city outdoor pool to play in the hot Tennessee afternoon. I didn’t take my camera and get photos because I wasn’t sure that I could manage both the camera and the child at the pool. Now that I have been once I know better what to expect and will take one next time. The pool has a ‘walk-in’ shallow section with water that shoots into the pool. We started walking in at that point so that Emily could get used to the water. I sat in the water as she inspected the shooting water. I was surprised that she didn’t last very long there and actually wanted to walk deeper into the pool. Most of this section was only 2 feet so she was able to walk pretty far before the water got very high on her. At some point she decided that she wanted to walk and explore outside of the pool. I wouldn’t let her do this and she found it quite upsetting. She just didn’t understand that the hot pavement would hurt her tender feet. To offer some distraction she and I went into the deeper section of the pool and played games of spinning and bouncing in and out of the water. She was very happy as long as she was holding on to Mommy. She was not keen on the idea of floating on her back and letting go of Mommy. Swimming was not much more successful, for some reason she wants to maintain some amount of control. After a little over an hour she was tired and a little grumpy and we headed home to get a much needed nap. The whole trip was fun and we will have to do it again soon.

Daddy’s perspective

I took a morning off work to spend some time with Emily during her swim class. She seemed to really enjoy our time together. Especially, when I made motorboat sounds, and encouraged her to “chase” me through the water. She seems to favor the breaststroke; she kicks like a frog. I think she gets that from me.

She seemed fairly comfortable in the water, with the one exception that she latched one of her hands around my arm, and would only paddle with one hand. It was sweet, and a bit silly looking, too. She also didn’t like it when I dunked her under the water, so I only put her under once.

I am really looking forward to more swim time with Emily. When can we go back, Mommy?

(8 months) Emily is taking swim lessons! Our local community pool offered a parent-tot swim class to introduce little ones to water. Emily is the only child in the class so we are getting a lot of one-on-one time with the instructor. Emily thinks the water is cold and is fussy until she gets used to it. I think it takes Mommy just as long to get used to the water as it takes Emily. Some of the activities we do in the pool are “swimming” between Mommy and the instructor while focusing on the kicking motion, jumping into the pool from the side of the pool, floating on our back, splashing Mommy to encourage movement of the arms, and holding on to the side of the pool by ourselves. There are also fun things to look at while we are in the pool. There are lane flags, lane dividers, bubbles made by the instructor, and water geysers made by Mommy.

Overall, Emily is doing great in the class. She likes Ms. Joyce, her instructor, and doesn’t seem to mind the water. She has a natural kicking motion anyway and that translates well into the kicking motion for swimming. Part way through the series of classes, Emily has decided that she needs to hold on to Mommy more while we are in the pool. I’m sorry that she doesn’t enjoy the freedom of being relaxed in the water that she once had. It is hard to learn to paddle with your hands when you are holding onto Mommy’s wrist. Her concern does have an up-side though. She is now holding on to the edge of the pool by herself and even trying to climb out. Before she was too laid back to grab on to the side. Emily will put her mouth and nose into the water by herself when swimming between the instructor and Mommy. One day she figured out how to spit a fountain of water out of her mouth. Unfortunately, she has not repeated this on other days. It was so cute. Some days the water in her face is frustrating and some days she doesn’t seem to care. Each day we ‘dunk’ Emily once under the water. She doesn’t like it too much and wants hugs from Mommy when she comes up and is trying to figure out what happened.

Emily was lucky one day when Daddy came to class and got to play in the pool. Unfortunately, good things must come to an end and she only has a couple of classes left to go to. Mommy will be on the lookout for other opportunities to go swimming because this has been a good experience and a lot of fun!