Jumper Abbie

Since Abbie started her swimming lessons, she’s really taken off in her love of the pool.  She loved it before, but she was content to just float around with her water wings on.  She didn’t want to jump in, she didn’t want to take her floaties off, she didn’t want to put her head under water or open her eyes under water.  In the past month, things have changed a little.  For one, she’ll jump in the pool completely by herself, while all the adults watch and take pictures from the deck.

She’s turned in to our little water kid.  We bought her a couple of those water ring and sticks that sink to the bottom of the pool and she loves trying to dive down to get them and usually she can get 2-3 of them before she comes up for air.

Thank God Mark likes to swim since I’m not much of a “get in the pool” person.  I like to watch from the sides.  And the pool is a nice refreshing 94 degrees right now.  (That was intense sarcasm… It’s like swimming in a warm bathtub.)  Abbie loves it and Ben loves it too, although we usually take Abbie swimming during Ben’s naptime, hence the lack of pictures of him.

All I can say is the house with a pool in the back yard was a good investment.  I’m glad we have it!

Abbie’s 3rd swimming experience

Mark loves water.  Sometimes I think he’s part fish.  So obviously, when it comes to getting Abbie in water, that’s Mark’s job.  I prefer to sit on the sidelines and watch.  However, when he’s on the other side of the world, and we’re at a hotel with a room that overlooks the pool, it becomes my job to take Abbie swimming.

She definitely takes after her daddy.  She hasn’t been swimming very often.  Her first swimming experience, which took place in Phoenix, AZ can be viewed HERE.  (She was 2.5 months old.)  Her second swimming experience was in Zurich, Switzerland and she was 13.5 months old.  And her third swimming experience was here in Hannibal, MO. 

I thought she’d be a little hesitant, but she really wasn’t at all.  At first she was like a little leech with her legs wrapped around me and her fists tightly grasping my swimming suit or hands.  But before long she was sitting on the wall and flopping herself into my arms in the water and asking to do it again.  She liked kicking her legs and splashing around. And she loved launching herself off the side of the pool.  She even did it standing up a few times.

I even got her to float on her back by herself for a few seconds.  She LOVED swimming in the “bathtub”, as she was calling it.  I had a hard time getting her to go to bed because she just wanted to swim some more.

Hurry home, daddy.  This is definitely your job and your kiddo obviously loves the water as much as you do.