And speaking of outdoor-water-time, Joey is a [insert whatever you wish here] when it comes to the pool.
We threw out his floaty at Balmorhea during the summer since it was on it's last legs and scared me a bit, and since then Joey's basically been swimming, more and more ably. I have to say it's harder for me because I actually have to get in the water rather than lazily watch from the side which I've quite enjoyed for the last 18 months, but honestly, what a champ Joey has become.
We've been hitting the community pool more than our backyard one since coming back from Texas, partly because, well, if I have to get in the water I'd like to be tanning at the same time, and the back yard is completely shaded after 2pm. But also if Joey is going to be swimming it's better to have a bit more space and siblings that are less likely to jump on top of him. Also it's because we have the best pool toy e-v-e-r (I'll not tell you what it is because it might be in your Stockings this year!) and we need the space to play with it.
Anyway, four years ago, when Tiger herself was Joey's age, we had an 'incident' in a friend's jacuzzi in Midland that basically gave me nightmares all that summer. The first day of swimming the following summer the nightmare resurfaced, and basically every new year as I saw the new floaty-less kids in the pool, I got cold-sweat flashbacks. That age of around four and five, when your kid doesn't want to use a floaty and can actually survive quite well but looks like they're drowning? Man I don't like that. Add a kid wearing a face mask and it freaks me out even more. So often I'd see the kids mouths barely coming out the water to grab a breath, their arms flapping and splashing, and basically looking like they're struggling to stay afloat. I'd see them jump in, spend ages under water, faff around on their way to the surface, finally grab a quick breath and then slowly float under the water again... Like I said, freaked me out year on year.
I still don't particularly like it, but now that I don't have a younger kid to keep my eye on, and instead have three very able water babies, I can relaxingly appreciate this 'stage', which is all it really is, so much more. And it's a stage of exploring, and testing, and experimenting, and above all else in their mind: having fun. Honestly, Joey is having a hoot. He jumps in, chooses to stay at the bottom of the pool does a few turns, or rolls, or something, and then jumps up with a big splash and a big gulp of air before heading underwater again. What it looks like is that he is struggling to stay afloat, struggling to catch his breath, but the reality is that he's just discovered he can touch the bottom of the pool on his tiptoes, and as a result can jump up and get his mouth above the water, then fall back in, before jumping up again. This also means that instead of lying flat and swimming, he's taken to bobbing/jumping/walking along the pool to get from me to the wall, or the wall to me. Again it looks like he is struggling to swim, but really at any point he knows how, and sometimes chooses, to lift his legs, stick his bum up, and doggy paddle like a normal child. He has also starting using the steps at the deep end to push himself all the way down to the bottom of the 9ft pool, before pushing off the bottom and bobbing back up grinning. He has some lung capacity that kid.
And all of this would have freaked me out if I had another 1 year old that I was dealing with in the pool, and wasn't always just an arm's length away from him. In fact, he wouldn't even have had these options but would have been safe in a floaty for another year. But as the youngest I can sit, or stand, or float in the pool and watch his experimenting. He's definitely scaring a good few people other swimmers, but honestly, I watch him and am amazed at the new things he's doing every day. He's genuinely having fun and exploring what he can do, though he does still require some reminders to NOT swim with things in his hands, and to concentrate on what he is doing, and to swim from one side to the other and not just out in to the middle of the pool with no thought to where he is going. Yesterday he learned to jump in, stay at the bottom long enough to find his sinking toys, then bounce up, put them on the side, climb out, and do it all over again. Quite something for a three and a half year old.
We're so going to miss this part of life.
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