Ah Pool, How I've Missed Thee

It’s been rainy and dreary and cool for most of this week, so the pool has stayed hidden under its little grey insulating blanket. But finally the sun came out yesterday and it felt like August again, so we uncovered the pool. It took some work to get all the fallen leaves and twigs and gunk that the rain and wind knocked into it cleaned out, but now it’s clean and beautiful once again and I’m recognizing how much I'd missed it over the past few days.

Last night we moved Ryan’s playpen out onto the pool deck so he could watch us clean while he played, and so he could get some of the fresh air and sunshine that I’m sure he missed as much as we did. We all ate dinner poolside and watched for the “batty-bats” to come out and eat their dinner, too. Ryan gazed at the tiki torches around the pool in absolute fascination, and was mesmerized by their reflections on the shiny stainless steel grill and on the surface of the pool itself. Bedtime was a piece of cake since he was already half-comatose from the combination of full tummy, fresh air, and intoxicating fire-watching. He was literally asleep before his head hit the pillow.

And it was wonderful to come back down to the pool after I’d tucked him in, to just sit with my sweetheart, enjoying a glass of wine and letting myself be mesmerized by the torches just as much as Ryan had been. I forget how relaxing the pool is, even when you’re not swimming in it. The sound and smell and sight of the water lapping against the sides of the pool, hearing all the summer insects buzzing contentedly in the trees, enjoying the cool evening breeze - all my senses are being soothed and my whirling mind can’t help but be slowed down and mellowed out. It’s a wonderful sensation, being poolside at night.

As a matter of fact, it’s pretty good being poolside during the day, too. If you’ll excuse me, I think I might just have time for a quick dip before Ryan finishes his nap!

...And That Stands for Pool

One of the highlights of our trip to Iowa was a visit to the town pool. Now, here in New England, when you picture a municipal pool, you probably picture a standard rectangular pool, maybe with a few floating lane dividers for lap swimmers, and possibly a diving board at one end.

The Mason City pool is NOTHING like that. It does, in fact, have a rectangular pool with lane dividers for lap swimming, but that’s pretty much where the resemblance ends.

Note cousin Brad in the corner encouraging Ryan to smile for the camera.

The other side of the lap swimming pool has a low diving board, a high diving board, and a tubular slide.

Daddy goes off the high diving board

There’s another pool next to it with two high, long, looping, partially enclosed slides.

Cousin Jake makes a grand entry into the water – big loopy slides in the background

On the far side of THAT pool, there’s a play structure for smaller kids with a straight slide, floats to climb on, and adjustable squirting showerheads to run under.

Cousin David floating on a crab

Next to THAT, there’s a shallow area for tiny tots to splash in, and next to THAT there’s a jungle gym play structure for bigger kids.

Ryan and David were great pool buddies!

Two chilly, snuggly babies ready to head for home

Oh, and did I mention that it’s heated and has big, clean changing rooms with showers? And all the teenaged lifeguards were pleasant rather than surly. And the kids playing in the pool were polite to each other and played nicely, even with kids they didn’t know. And everyone threw away their own trash and didn’t use more chairs than they needed and kept an eye on each others’ kids and didn’t run on the pool deck and were just generally pleasant and charming to be around. It was like a big neighborhood block party.

It was just Terrific all around. With a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for Pool!

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.