This is Gabe at 7 months old. He is definitely in his element here. Water is a beautiful thing to him. Pools, baths, running faucet water, BUT absolutely NOT showers! You could hear his screaming for miles aft
er we had to rinse him off after swimming yesterday. Our friend has a huge luxurious bathroom, which echoed the shrill screams even louder. SD and I felt terrible. The only other option we had was to fill up their even larger jacuzzi tub. So, we thought quick in .....quick out. Gabe has pretty sensitive Excema behind his knees and on the crook of both his arms. If he does not get all the pool water off, he breaks out and it really itches. We do treat it with Elidel, but Excema all lies in prevention really. We got him all dressed and ready to go, said goodbye to our friends and I catch a whiff. I must say that I am notorious for pointing fingers when this happens, because I most certainly do NOT want someone to think that I can emit a smell most foul. By now I am very tired, my stomach is growling and now I have to deal with the big "P". To let you know HOW tired I was, let me pause a moment and rewind.......The morning started bright and early, 6:30 AM, Saturday. Gabe loves to wake up and play by his door for about 10 minutes before he knocks continuously until you get him. All the morning stuff occurs and them off my daughter and I go to gymnastics. Afterwards, a quick bite to eat and in the car to our friends to swim in her cool pool. Mind you, it is about 2:00PM when we get there and Gabe has decided to not nap the entire hour that the trip took. At first, he seems OK with being held, with the occasional jump into the pool to a person waiting. But, by 3:00 PM, Gabe has a very different plan of action for freedom. He figures if he runs fast enough, he can out run and out smart the adults watching him around the pool. For the most part, he is right. He never stops to indicate he's jumping in. He just leans forward and plunges in. I call it the Dead Man Dive. Unfortunately, it has some truth to the title. Very soon after these clever stunts to him and heart attacks to us, we decide it is time for snacks.
In order for SD and I to snack sanely and unrushed, Gabe has to be restrained, if you will, especially around the pool. To our dismay, SD and I forgot to pack the stroller. If only you could have seen our poor beaten down and tired souls. It was truly a sad sight. What was even more funny, was we were surrounded by childless people. People who did not see the predicament SD and I were in. Luckily, I am one to find a way when it comes to our survival. I got Gabe's car seat and strapped him in. I wish I had a picture, but at the time I think I would have been too tired to take one. He looked so comfortable there eating his snack in a five point harness!
Snack did not last long and off we were again in the pool. Half hour longer and then home we would go. This was when Gabe got on a floaty, I'm holding on his Speedo/body life vest the whole time, and takes a dive off the other side. I had a firm grip on him, but his face went under a little along with his ears. He just got tubes in his ears and now I'm wondering if he will be OK. Gabe would not let me put anything on or around his ears before we swam to protect them. He's 2 and I didn't think I would win that battle. He's ears are not bothering him, but could water have gotten in his middle ear again? Would it just drain out? I'm going to Google and find out.
10 minutes to go. Boy, I missed talking to the other people. They would come over and talk to us for awhile. I felt like I was at a great pool with my great kids, but we were on the kiddie side and all the adults were lounging pool side or having a drink as they floated around in their raft. Then it happened. The only other couple there, took their ONLY child and showed him how to jump off the diving board. Before we could shield Gabe's eyes, The boy made a cute laugh and splashed in the water. I'm not sure how it happened, but Gabe was out of the water and running to the diving board. Our friends' husband was sitting on the board by then and blocked Gabe before making his gold medal dive. Now, it is quite a compliment to me when a big, strong guy tells you that he is having trouble holding back your son. He will now understand the sweat on my brow accompanied by a strained expression when I hold my son. I do not normally look like that.
It took awhile to get Gabe to peacefully leave the diving board. We let him jump fully guided by SD's arms into the water. Thank God that his grandparents do not have a diving board at their pool.
We had a great time, but it was quite an eye opener to how fearless he is with water. We will not be getting a pool anytime soon.
