I'm just going to stay here by the wall, okay?
I'm not too sure about this, Mom...
No, really, Mommy, this is deep enough!We played motor boat, motor boat, which is one of Rachel's favorite games. She'd never played it in the water, though, and she liked spinning around and splashing the water. After she was warmed up and feeling a little braver, Rachel did some back floats (with some help from Mommy), blew some bubbles, kicked her legs, started a few splashing wars, and even went under the water a few times. She's a natural.
Her favorite thing to do was look up at the lifeguards and wave. We'd swim her up and down the pool and she'd have one hand hanging on for dear life and the other hand waving, constantly, at the lifeguards and her fellow swimmers.
We swam into the deep end and Rachel watched Daddy go off the diving board, which she thought was neat until he disappeared under the water. She looked at me, panicked. But soon enough Daddy popped back up to the surface and Rachel relaxed a little bit.
The only time she cried was when Mommy left her with Daddy and started to swim away. She acted as if it was the end of the world and her screams echoed off the walls! When I came back she gave me a hug like a vice grip and wouldn't let go, so I sang to her softly and stroked her hair until she stopped screaming. Then we played motor boat, motor boat again and made everything all better.
Unfortunately, we didn't last long in the pool before we were all too cold. Rachel, especially, was freezing, but I had my fair share of goosebumps, too.
Getting into dry clothes was an ordeal. We didn't even shower off because I couldn't quite figure out what to do with everything. (The nice part about this crypto bacteria is that they've installed a UV filter so they can use far less chlorine than they used to so even though we didn't rinse off, our skin doesn't feel all tight and flakey.)
I got Rachel dressed first because she was shivering and her teeth were chattering. I wrapped her up in her towel and she relaxed into my arms and smiled. She even let me dry off her hair, which is something she usually fights me over after bath time.
After she was dressed, though, I didn't have anywhere to put her while I got dressed, so I just sat her on a semi-dry part of the floor and gave her my wallet to play with. I got dressed as fast as I could, but by the time I was done she had crawled over to a puddle and splashed all over the place, completely soaking her pants. Oh, well, at least it's kind of warm outside now.
While we were in the locker room, Rachel saw a little girl who was about 3 years old. She started walking towards her, waving. And then she smiled really big and said, "Hi!" That surprised me! She's growing up so fast!
We decided to get a monthly pass to the OFC so that Rachel and I can go swimming in the afternoons and not feel bad about paying to get in and staying for only a half hour. It also means that we can go swimming with Daddy and play racquetball as much as we want (for the next 30 days, that is).
Splash, splash!Her favorite thing to do was look up at the lifeguards and wave. We'd swim her up and down the pool and she'd have one hand hanging on for dear life and the other hand waving, constantly, at the lifeguards and her fellow swimmers.
We swam into the deep end and Rachel watched Daddy go off the diving board, which she thought was neat until he disappeared under the water. She looked at me, panicked. But soon enough Daddy popped back up to the surface and Rachel relaxed a little bit.
I guess this isn't so bad...The only time she cried was when Mommy left her with Daddy and started to swim away. She acted as if it was the end of the world and her screams echoed off the walls! When I came back she gave me a hug like a vice grip and wouldn't let go, so I sang to her softly and stroked her hair until she stopped screaming. Then we played motor boat, motor boat again and made everything all better.
Unfortunately, we didn't last long in the pool before we were all too cold. Rachel, especially, was freezing, but I had my fair share of goosebumps, too.
Getting into dry clothes was an ordeal. We didn't even shower off because I couldn't quite figure out what to do with everything. (The nice part about this crypto bacteria is that they've installed a UV filter so they can use far less chlorine than they used to so even though we didn't rinse off, our skin doesn't feel all tight and flakey.)
I got Rachel dressed first because she was shivering and her teeth were chattering. I wrapped her up in her towel and she relaxed into my arms and smiled. She even let me dry off her hair, which is something she usually fights me over after bath time.
After she was dressed, though, I didn't have anywhere to put her while I got dressed, so I just sat her on a semi-dry part of the floor and gave her my wallet to play with. I got dressed as fast as I could, but by the time I was done she had crawled over to a puddle and splashed all over the place, completely soaking her pants. Oh, well, at least it's kind of warm outside now.
While we were in the locker room, Rachel saw a little girl who was about 3 years old. She started walking towards her, waving. And then she smiled really big and said, "Hi!" That surprised me! She's growing up so fast!
We decided to get a monthly pass to the OFC so that Rachel and I can go swimming in the afternoons and not feel bad about paying to get in and staying for only a half hour. It also means that we can go swimming with Daddy and play racquetball as much as we want (for the next 30 days, that is).
Ahhh.... I get it now...
ReplyDeleteYou guys had a cryptosporidium scare. Drumheller had that one year, all they did was drain the pool and clean it with oxyguard and then fill and open... weird that you guys had all your pools closed for babies.
BTW, did you know that pools in Europe keep their chlorine levels below 1.0 ppm? If it's higher than .5 they start to freak out. Also, Quebec mandates that their hot tubs maintain a 10.0 ppm level of chlorine. Which is almost swimsuit bleaching and unnecessary in my opinion but ahh well! Glad to see she enjoyed the pool at long last :)
Yeah, even now she has to wear both a swim diaper and swim "rubber" pants.
ReplyDeleteYeah, they don't really drain pools here. Ever. Like once a year. I don't know why they didn't just do that in the first place...they won't until August.
Anyway...the way they clean their pools disgusts me. I think I told you about it. Like, if there is some BM found in the pool they clear the area, scoop out the poop, and put some oxidizer there. 15 minutes later, they let people back into that area.
HELLO! Water circulates!
I remember having the entire pool cleared, vacuumed, cleaned, etc. It wasn't open again 'til the next day...anyway, yeah. They're kinda gross here.
I'm kinda surprised Rachel didn't get on with the swimming pool a whole lot better, given how enjoyable she finds the bathtub! lol.
ReplyDeleteWell, you know swimming pools--cold, deep, etc. Not as welcoming as a lukewarm tub...
ReplyDelete