Family Swim Night Minus 1

Call me crazy, but I prefer the term "adventurous". With Phill at a endocrinology conference in Boston, I decided to take all three kids to the pool. However, I did use the Kid Zone first so that I could get some exercise before attempting this daring feat. I also determined that the indoor pool would be less crowded (although the outdoor pool is truly never really over crowded) and, hence, easier to pay attention to the two that would not be permanently attached to me.

I did tell both Larien and Inwe that in order to swim they had to wear the suits with floatation devices in them. One of the suits is decorated like a watermelon and was bought two years ago for Inwe. She has since outgrown this suit, and Larien had been extremely resistant to wearing it until last night. Inwe has a new suit made by Speedo that has two zipper pockets--one front, the other back. The pockets are for the inflatable bladders, which can be inflated to varying degrees depending on the swimming ability of the kid. Inwe could probably do without the floatation device, but she wouldn't swim nearly as long and would require much more vigilance that I could muster while holding Finwe.

Larien had a few moments where she was unsure of her balance as she swam, but after that insecurity was overcome she was off like a dolphin. She never once wanted me to intervene or help her. She was very thrilled and even jumped off the side of the pool using her legs to kick her back to the surface. There was no backward progress last night. She was full steam ahead!

Inwe was, as usual, very confident and even attempted to dive for objects at the bottom of the pool. She's not quite ready for that, so I did plenty of work using my toes and feet to lift these toys off the bottom. Swimming her way all the way to the deeper end of the pool and back was her greatest feat. Admittedly, I was worried when she was down there by herself, but the lifeguard was watching as well. (And probably thinking, "that lady is crazy bringing three small kids by herself".)

The easiest way to describe Finwe's time in the warm water pool was relaxed. He didn't want to be in the baby float at all. I held him the entire time--about 1.5 hours. For 30 mintues of that time I played the games with him that I learned in Larien's 6-36 month swim class. I even manipulated his legs in a kick causing him to giggle in glee. At some time, I was helping Inwe get something from the bottom of the pool. When my attention was turned back to Finwe, I realized that he was alseep on my shoulder.

For the last hour or so, Finwe slept despite the splashes from the girls jumping in the pool or kicking. Nothing really bothered him until we left the pool. The temperature change woke him up. He was happy, so getting dressed was relatively easy.

We completed the day with pizza, strawberries, and ice cream. The girls were in bed by 8pm. Finwe lasted until just around 9pm. I lasted until 10pm. White Dragon wanted to stay outside longer. She lost and had to come inside.