Well, we officially have three swimmers! Ellie waited all summer to really go for it, but over the past week, go for it she did! And she's rocking it! Ellie wanted to hold my hand to jump in for a while, but then I asked if she would hold Avery's hand and she did! Next thing I knew they decided they should all hold hands and jump together. It is quite possibly the cutest thing ever! Here is a video compilation of many attempts! (Sorry about the spotty underwater camera action, but we are just guessing since we can't see the screen!)
Our three little fish...
They are soooo much fun at the pool and they love it. All morning they were asking me to "go back to pool!" and had a meltdown when it was time to leave. I honestly can't get enough of watching them swim and they are so cute and love to watch these videos too!
We have been taking these kiddos to the pool since they were itty bitty babies and this summer we have really seen the dividends of all that time in the water. A while ago we learned about Infant Rescue Swimming and thought it was so cool and potentially lifesaving, especially when you have three little ones. Unfortunately there are no instructors in our area and it is very expensive. So we watched a couple videos on YouTube and got a few pointers from those on things to try with them in the pool when they were little, but mostly we have just kind of followed our instincts on things we should be doing with them in the pool. We have let them do a lot of experimenting & had to hold ourselves back from rescuing them too soon. Our biggest goal has always been for them to be comfortable in the water & that means both loving being in the water, but also figuring out what their bodies can & can't do in the water.. And man, are they ever comfortable in the water! And they are constantly trying new things and figuring out what they can do in the water. It has been soooo fun to watch!
Ellie is the most cautious in the water but even she has her moments where she says "mo mo mo" about swimming underwater with our help. This past weekend was a breakthrough weekend for both Avery & Isaiah with swimming where they really started swimming on their own underwater. Yesterday I was able to borrow an underwater camera from a friend and took a ton of short video clips both yesterday and today at the pool. I am looking forward to seeing them (& Ellie) continue to improve their swimming skills over the next month or so! A woman at the pool came over yesterday & said "Wow! They really can swim! My daughter called me over telling me I had to see the swimming babies!" Now it's your turn to see the swimming babies!
These babies LOVE the water! They love our summer pool time and any chance they get to be in or around water!
Happy boy!
happy girl!
cups are apparently the best pool toy!
family pic at the pool (Isaiah was obviously not thrilled! But Avery gave a good cheesy smile!)
And then Ellie...
they also love to eat at the pool! We do a LOT of picnics at the pool. So much so that we get to the pool & Avery says "eat" within five minutes of getting there.
It's hard to get very many pics and videos at the pool because it takes our full attention most of the time to keep them safe. The other day Ellie was cold and wanted out so she & Michelle took these videos of Avery & Isaiah taking turns swimming underwater to me.
Yesterday we took them to the park near us where there is a little stream. We didn't have our act together for dinner so we got Thai takeout. They of course HAD to get in the water so we stripped them down and let them go to town. They used the takeout containers and had a blast. They were having so much fun and it was hard to make them leave to head home for bedtime!
Takeout containers & water bottles...
3 of the cutest little nakey-bums around!
panning for gold with Thai takeout containers??
"ooooooo" that water is cold!
soooo happy
Avery dumping freezing cold water on her belly!
how cute is this girl?!
Such a natural cheeseball even when we're not asking her to cheese!
scooping & dumping water over and over and over
Having fun dumping water on Mommy's feet!
Michelle and I love that our kiddos love the water so much! Whenever they get cranky water usually does the trick!
We took the babies to the pool this weekend for the first time. Our new friends and their seven month old daughter joined us so we could have a 1:1 adult to baby ratio, which was super and definitely made things easier! The babies all LOVED the water! We got lots of big smiles from everyone and heard lots of talking. Avery particularly like being lifted high in the sky and then splashing down in the water and didn't really seem to mind when her face got splashed. Ellie seemed to like it when I laid back in the water a bit so she could prop on her elbows on my chest. And Isaiah was the king of floating on his back! He just loved it and seemed so relaxed with his head fully back so both his ears were in the water. They all got a mouthful or two of water at various points, most often of their own doing, though occasionally it was definitely our fault! We passed the babies around a lot so we would get one on one time with each of them.
We picked up cute suits for the girls for a couple bucks from a consignment sale this week, which was great timing. We didn't have a suit for Isaiah, but Michelle's mom had picked up a 12mo suit for later in the summer and we decided to just try it. It was WAY too big for him, but it stayed on well enough. We'll have to check the local kids resale store to see if we can find a smaller one for him. I thought we had other suits, but couldn't find them this morning in a quick search.
all our little water babies
No one was a big fan of the after-pool process of rinsing off in the shower, getting lubed up with coconut oil, and changing out of wet suits and into dry clothes, but they survived. And really, the crying was fairly minimal considering how chilly that whole process is for everyone, including the adults! It was sooooo helpful to have Deirdre there to help! I think we could do it by ourselves but there would definitely be more crying! Once everyone was dressed we fed them in the lobby and all three fell asleep.
We decided to take advantage of three sleepy babies to get groceries so Michelle drove laps around the Trader Joes parking lot while I shopped. Then I lapped the Giant lot while she popped in for the last few things on our list. All three were still sleeping when we got home and actually stayed asleep in their car seats in the house for a while. The girls each slept for an hour and a half and Isaiah napped for two hours! If we can get super long naps like that every time we'll be swimming a lot more often!! :)
Here's a quick video Deirdre took for us of everyone in the pool.
