Water Baby

Summer has always been my favorite season.  The reason why: some of my favorite activities take place during the warm months.  Cookouts, baseball, days spent on the lake – and my most favorite summer past time: swimming.

Ever since I can remember my childhood summer days were spent at the pool.  My Mom, who had summers off since she is a teacher, would load up my brother and me in the car and head to the pool to pass the hot summer days.  Diving for pool sticks and pennies, jumping off the diving board (and eventually moving up to the high diving board), having “tea parties” at the bottom of the pool with friends and playing “Marco Polo” described my summer days.  The dreaded “10 minute time-outs” held every hour so the lifeguards could get a break, seemed to last forever.  This did offer a great time for us to head to the snack bar.  My Mom always came prepared for snack time with a wallet full of change.  After a long day at the pool, there was nothing better than coming home for a short nap before dinner.  Those were the best days of summer!

Unfortunately I have to work during the summer months, but I hope to still create many fun memories with my baby girl at the pool.  With this in mind, when summer “parent/child” swim lessons opened up at our local park district I quickly signed Anderson and I up.  Since that day in March, I’ve been anxiously awaiting baby swim lessons.

 

My purpose of signing Miss A up for swim lessons wasn't all for the fun either.  I was introduced to water at around six months.  Because I had swim lessons and have felt confident swimming for years I’ve never felt uncomfortable in the water.  I want to make sure Anderson feels that way too.  She needs to know how to be safe in the water, and in the process, will hopefully turn into a little fish too!

This week was our first night of swim lessons.  The weather wasn’t great for our water debut, but that didn’t stop my little baby from enjoying her time in the pool.  She definitely was not afraid of the water.  About 30 minutes into the class she was pushing at me to put her down so she could kick and play in the water on her own.  She is a very independent little girl in and out of the water.

Anderson loved picking up checker pieces in the water (and then putting them in her mouth when I looked away for a second), kicking in the water while sitting on the edge of the pool, and laying on her tummy while I whisked her around the water.  She even showed off when her Dad arrived after work by putting her face in the water on her own. 

I might be a little bit of a proud baby swimmer Mom, but she really seemed to love it.  This makes me extremely happy as this will be something we will both enjoy doing together for years to come.  Even though Miss A won’t have the same experiences I did spending every day at the pool, I know we will be able to create many fun memories on our future trips splashing through the pool!