So, is it just my dirty mind, or do little toddler boys have this genetic thing going on where they get this idea in their head?
And just so she doesn’t feel left out, here’s my other little munchkin, TheChildWhoDoesNotSleep(tm).
About two summers ago, we took our son to the beach. The house where we stayed for a family reunion had a swimming pool as well, and the kids enjoyed getting into the water daily. My son had other ideas.
Why on earth anyone would want to get inside this freezing wet stuff was completely beyond him. At sixteen months old, he was perfectly content to splash water inside a bucket…on dry ground.
Then we found a compromise that suited everyone. My sister-in-law had a giant inflatable chair. My husband and I could enjoy the pool, holding onto the chair where my son could glide on the surface of the water like a king commanding his servants. To make it even safer, I had dressed him in a full body bathing suit equipped with floatation devices completely around his chest.
My husband affectionately nicknamed him “Baby Jihad.” The kid looked like a suicide bomber, ready to go off at any moment. But he allowed us to take him around the pool. Then, as fate would have it, he decided he’d had enough. Before I could grab him, he hurled himself off the opposite side of the chair. I learned that instead of keeping him upright like a bobbing cork, the Baby Jihad set-up tended to spin. His face would go in the water, then he’d spin upright, then down again. I rescued him in approximately three seconds, so there was no harm done, really, but he chose to blame my husband for the entire ordeal (even though my hubby was at the opposite end of the pool). Our son shot him nasty looks for the remainder of the trip, as though the entire thing were my husband’s fault.
This year, it’s my daughter’s turn to wear the outfit when we visit relatives over the Fourth of July. Her personality is vastly different from my son’s. Instead of being finicky about the water, I anticipate her fourteen-month-old self will do cannonballs into the pool. The child has no fear.
At what age did your kids learn to swim?
P.S.–5 pages last night. Since I’m back to work this week, I’m pretty pleased with that.
