So today was the first day I braved the BIG pool with all 3 kiddos by myself. Since none of them are independent swimmers yet, it's always made me a little nervous to take them without help, which is why we frequent the local splash pads all summer. But, Caleb has swimming lessons this week at our park district's pool, and the more I scoped it out, I was convinced that we could go and all survive! This particular pool has a really nice zero-depth/shallow area that is just big enough but not so big that I feel like I can't keep track of them all at once.
So, after Caleb's lesson today, we had a picnic lunch...
...and then headed back into the pool.
I didn't get the chance to take too many pictures of the kids actually
playing in the water, since I was right in there with them most of the
time. Between having to have my hands ready to scoop Shane back up if he fell and
my fear that my camera would fall into the water, the camera stayed in the bag
most of the time.
It turned out to be a LOT of fun. The kids loved it. Caleb and Meredith were able to be completely independent. If I had just the two of them, I might have even been able to sit on a chair and keep an eye on them from afar. Maybe even read a book! Or take a nap! Okay maybe not that one so much... Shane, of course, needed a bit more hands-on supervision. He was actually a bit hesitant to let go of my hand at first, but once we were just a few minutes into the fun, he got very comfortable. It also took him a while to figure out how to successfully walk in the water. He fell down and went under the water a lot, but he wasn't phased.
I'm pretty sure that the little water slide was the highlight of everyone's day. I would estimate that between the 3 of them, they quite possible went down it close to 100 times. I so wish I had camera-captured their faces when they would come down the slide - sheer joy!
Treat time!
Hopefully we will get back there again soon! Meredith is free until she turns 3, so we have to take full advantage of that for sure. =)
