Finley's Waterworld

After much research and patience, Finley and I ventured to a local outdoor pool yesterday. After six straight days of upper 80s and 90 degree weather, it was time to cool off! I rousted Finley from a 2 hour plus afternoon nap so that we could get to the pool and it was quite a learning experience in terms of getting him ready. I managed to get him into the pull up swim diaper (with no velcro tabs, it looked more like very absorbent baby underwear), then into his slightly too big swim trunks, and his fancy SPF sun shirt. As someone with highly sun-fearing skin, I want to protect my delicate little flower (and avoid gobs of sunscreen). Finally, I put some sunscreen on his legs, lower arms, face, and neck. Phew. He wasn't terribly thrilled with me after all of this, but perked up once we were all set to go and hopped into the car.

We went to the free (yes, free!) state run pool in Cambridge, just about 10 minutes away. Sadly, as we pulled into the parking lot the recently unforgiving sun decided to hide behind the clouds and not come back out! Good news for Finley because that meant no hat :) Bad news for both of us because it meant a chillier experience. The pool was PACKED with kids and grown ups alike, but we managed to find a square of grass to put our stuff down on. Finley enjoyed looking around and trying to get at the grass under our towel. I realized that we wouldn't get any pictures of Finley in the water, so I better snap some before we went in.

He looks like he could be a little surfer dude! An uncooperative surfer dude though--he wouldn't look up at me and flash his gorgeous smile...arg! Despite the raucous behavior going on in the shallow end, it was our only way to enter the pool so off we went. Finley got splashed when a little girl did a cannonball near us, but he handled it well and the girl apologized as soon as she popped up--perhaps good manners aren't a lost art?!

We waded across the super shallow end, went under the rope, and made it into the less shallow part of the pool where there were fewer splashing kids. Finley held onto me with a vice grip with one hand around my neck and the other clenching my bathing suit strap. The water was certainly chilly and without the sun, we were both a little goosebumped. However, I really wanted Finley to hang out for a while so we bounced up and down, twirled around, sang some songs, and had a good time. He never really loosened his grip, but I was able to turn him around so that he was "sitting" in the water with his back to me and able to see all the goings on. I don't think I ever got him wet past his belly and when I tried to go a bit lower in the water, he pushed up on me with his feet (smart, eh?). After about twenty minutes, Finley started to get a little teary and it was time to make our way across the gauntlet of kids. We got out of the pool and boy was it cold! I rushed over to our spot and wrapped Finley up in his towel.

He enjoyed sitting on my lap, all wrapped up, and looking around. However, I was still pretty chilly so we packed up and headed to the car. I wasn't sure if I should change him in the car of let him ride home in his swim diaper...I chose the easy way out and didn't change him (bad mommy) since he had dried out fairly well. By the time we were out of the parking lot, my little water bug was in dreamland! In fact, he was so far gone that I was able to bring him upstairs when we got home, set him down in the hallway, take a shower, and change before he woke up!

I had heard from other moms I know that swimming really wears kids out, but since he wasn't really "swimming" or even floating around, I was surprised! Dan came home just as Fin was waking up and he helped me get him ready for a bath (I assumed I should bathe him to get the chlorine and sunscreen off, right?). He had fun splashing around and reaching for toys as usual...good to know he still loves water in baby-sized settings, now we'll just work to get up to the lap pool comfort level!