swimming with mom

We have loved our pool this year. It is so much fun, especially now that we have 3 great swimmers and only one non-pool safe child. 

Jo loves to swim. She tells me, "mommy swimming suit" and "jojo jump in mommy" and pulls me by my clothes until I get us both dressed for swimming. It is kind of a pain, I admit on some days, but on many days it is a refreshing break. 

Jo loves to jump in holding hands with the girls. She'll count for them and they'll all jump in together. I catch jo and the others swim on their own.

After Jo jumps in she pushes away from me like she can swim herself and tries to get away from me. I stick a hand under her and let her swim around and she commands me what direction to point to. She is a bossy little baby!

Calvin uses the pool more than anyone else in the family. He swims probably 5 times a day when he is not in school. I let him go to the pool alone as long as he tells me and I can just check on him every 5 minutes or so (plus I can hear him from the house). He'll go down and float around whenever he gets to hot. We are lucky to have a pool for him. A lot of special needs kids have sensory issues, as Calvin does, and swimming is such great "therapy." I was talking to some other moms of special needs kids who said their child loves swimming but sometimes it's hard to go to the pool because it is inconvenient or because their child is disruptive to others and makes others uncomfortable so we are lucky to have a pool at home for Calvin.  It is worth the $ we pay year round, just for him. I wish we could heat it so he could use it year round. (maybe some day!)

Clare is a great swimmer. She is very confident in the water. This year she has been trying tricks like flips and dives and enjoys paying tag and  other games.

Lexey started the summer in water wings and is now completely confident in the water. She can jump in anywhere, even the high dive and be just fine. She does get tired faster than the other kids.

oh, Jo jumped in off the "high dive" today. She did it two times but it really scared her so she didn't do it again. I was pretty shocked she'd do it at all.