Water, Water Everywhere

The past few days have been full of water adventures – some falling down from the sky and some (much more pleasant!) in our pool.

New England has had some impressive thunder and lightning storms passing through over the past week, and even though I love thunderstorms, there were a few bands that passed through that made me a little nervous. Several nights I woke up in the middle of the night to flashes of lightning so bright I could see them through my eyelids, thunderclaps that literally shook the house, and rain and wind worthy of a natural disaster movie. It was a great relief to wake up in the morning to not only sunshine but electricity. And after the first storm, there wasn’t even much loose brush to get knocked into the pool.

Ah, the pool. Herb opened the pool a few weeks ago but the water was very cloudy, and eventually he discovered it was because there were several holes in the filter. After a number of phone calls, he found a pool supply store that had replacement parts for our “antique” (I prefer to think of it as “retro chic”) filter and managed to rebuild the whole thing. Before we knew it, the pool was beautifully clear again and although we’re not planning on turning on the heater for good till we have more time to spend in the pool (I’m predicting somewhere around mid-July), he put it on for a couple of days just to make sure it was working. So when we went in the pool last night (in between passing thunderstorms), the temperature was a glorious 88 degrees – just the way I like it!

And, apparently, just the way Ryan likes it. He had his first pool experience last weekend at my sister- and brother-in-law’s house. They keep their pool considerably cooler than we do, plus Ryan was overtired and a bit cranky, and he didn’t enjoy his “swim” quite as much as we’d hoped. But his second pool outing, and his first in our pool, was much more fun!

One of the fun parts (for Mom and Dad, anyway), was his cool “Aussie” swimsuit. It looks like a tiny wetsuit and is much easier to get on and off a non-cooperative, wet little body than you might expect. And it makes him look like a grown up little boy! I half expect him to stand up and grab a surfboard when he’s wearing it.

But the real fun began when Daddy actually brought him IN the pool. He hardly reacted when Daddy dangled his toes in the water, and looked interested and not at all concerned when Daddy lowered him in up to his tummy. And then when Daddy started zooming him around in the water and helping him float on his back, well, that was when the REAL fun began!

One of the advantages to being such a chunky monkey is that he’s absurdly buoyant. When he leaned his head back and relaxed his feet so they weren’t sticking up out of the water, he hardly needed any support from Daddy to float. All that chub had him bobbing about like a little blue cork!

Daddy even helped him get used to putting his head underwater by blowing gently in his face so he took a breath and closed his eyes, then bobbing him under for a split second. I was terrified the first time he tried it, but Ryan popped up out of the water, nonchalantly blinked a few times, then looked around as if to say, “Well, that was interesting.”

I’m delighted that he’s such a water baby already! I foresee a summer spent happily bobbing in the pool for hours on end until both he and I are blue-lipped and pruny. (OK, considering the pool temperature, probably not so blue-lipped.) He’s already more comfortable in the water than I am, so maybe he’ll spur me on to be braver in the pool! In fact, we may even need to have a race to see who can go down the water slide without holding our noses first. Although I’m pretty sure he’ll always have me beat on that one.