Fins and Flippers!

Ian and I have been making pilgrimages to the pool about three times a week—it is all of about a hundred feet from our front door to the pool, so the only reason we don’t go more often is that there are some nights when we just have to do other things.

Ian is turning into quite the little piscine—two weeks ago he was afraid to get in the water, and now we can’t go to the pool without him begging me, “Toss me in the deep, Daddy!” I, of course, am glad to oblige.

About a week ago we started spending some time without his little floaties (we call them his muscles) on his arms so that he could start to learn how to really swim. When Ian is having a really good time, he will yell out, “Look at me! I’m a fish!” He is doing a great job kicking his feet and he is learning how to stroke with his arms (although half of the time he ends up going backwards). When you drop him in the water without his muscles, though, he tenses up and forgets to stroke with his arms and his kicking is more like thrashing.

One of the first times that Ian decided he wanted to jump into the pool without his muscles on and without me catching him, he thrashed around underwater (I’ll usually give him about three seconds) and started to realize that he was in trouble about the time that I pulled him up and let him sit on my knee. He spluttered for a second and then looked at me with water still streaming down his face and said, “I wasn’t a fish that time, Dad.”

However, bless his little heart, he has not shied away from taking a ducking; he likes to spend his time chasing his beach ball or his pink rubber ball, jumping into the pool, getting tossed in the deep end and doing cannonballs with me. He even likes to fish for sharks.

We got him one of those little Styrofoam pool noodles at the dollar store a while ago and he loves to go out on the island in our pool and fish. He will stand up on the island and dip the end of the noodle in the water and I will swim around underwater until I see the end of the noodle and then jump up and grab it. It scares him every time and he laughs himself silly. Sometimes I get really lucky and he holds on to the noodle too tightly. Ian has learned that really big fish can pull you in.

One of our favorite things to do is for me to tickle him from underwater. I get worried sometimes that he is going to swallow half of the pool because he has a hard time keeping his face above water when he is laughing so hard. It is a good time!

He is a brave little boy and I am proud of him; he used to be a little scared of the water and now he (seemingly) has no fear. I used to worry about getting him into the water—now it is ten times harder to get him out!