This post was written while on holiday and is published retrospectively.
Both kids have so far loved their time in the water here at Sant Elm and both have given us some memories to take away. Oliver has been using the single polystyrene band on each arm that he uses for his swimming lessons. From time to time he has taken them off. He can swim the width of the pool and I started to add incentives to do so, offering an extra tv show for every width he swims. He immediately swam 2 widths back to back. Living proof that bribery is the tool of choice for the unscrupulous parent.
Lucy started the week by falling flat on her face into the sea and then moved on to clinging onto us in the swimming pool. But within a couple of hours she had progressed to swimming around with her arm bands on, refusing to let me hold her. Her confidence did over-reach itself after lunch one day though, when she walked away from me after I had finished putting sun cream on her. “Lucy you need your arm bands on.” “No I’m ok,” as she walks towards the shallow baby pool. “No Lucy, you need them if you go in without Daddy,” as I rise to follow her. Lucy runs towards the pool, I hasten after her. Determined, she races forward down the steps into the pool before launching forward gracefully with her arms in front of her. At this point her launch, which should resemble a racing yacht gliding serenely across the surface, sadly is more reminiscent of that of a submarine, as her glide takes a downward trajectory. Fortunately Daddy is now precisely one step behind and scoops her up, her face transformed from cheeky resolution to a drenched shock, before the inevitable tears. The damage was far from permanent though, Lucy returning to the pool with arm bands a few minutes later to give the pool a good telling off for making her sink.
Other highlights included:
- Oliver abandoning his arm bands to help him learn to surface dive down to pick up a rubber ring from the base of the pool. Aided by his goggles he loved this new game and became more confident without his bands, leaving them off the rest of the afternoon.
- Throwing my kids into the air, which will never become old for me, certainly not before the day they become too big for me to throw into the air anyway.
- Lucy playing happily with her bucket, spade and assorted other toys at the side of the baby pool.
- Oliver jumping into the water right next to me as I lay peacefully on an air bed.
Finally we witnessed the complete range of emotions when Lucy decided unprompted to jump into waist deep (for her) water at the swimming pool. She bent her knees, her face froze in an expression of outright terror, then she summoned her courage and leaped in. The splash of water on her face produced a startled look, before the realisation of what she had done caused a look if absolute unadulterated joy to beam cross her face as she laughed and jumped in delight. I shall never forget it.
Sounds fabulous!
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