We keep going back to the same condo complex in Gulf Shores - it's in West Beach (near the dead end of the road), so it has very little traffic. Out the front door is the gulf, out the back door is the lagoon with a fishing dock, and just outside our door is the pool. Honestly, I love the beach but with kids it's a lot of work and Gage gets sick of it because he can't escape the heat as much as he'd like. But the pool is easy. Everyone stays cool, easy cleanup, less crap to lug down with us, etc. Gage got brave enough to jump and go under by himself this time!
And, he was a happy boy swimming around independently with his swimmies on!
He may have endured a little tickle torture from Daddy. And Mommy. It's just so easy, he's the most ticklish little person I know, and that laugh is just adorable.
Savannah practiced her "real" swimming the first day or two, but then she requested swimmies of her own because she was not allowed to go past the 3 foot mark by herself. So, we picked some up for 50 cents on our next trip to the grocery store, and then she too could cruise the pool independently. She kept taking them off to swim, though :-)
Daddy did a lot of kid crazy stuff -- flying them over his head like superman,
letting them stand on their head, letting both of them stand on his shoulders (at the same time), etc.
Swimming, however, tires the kids out. Really tires them out. When Gage gets tired, he gets.....cranky. Oh yes, he gets VERY cranky. At one point he tried to leave the pool area and when we called him back, this is what we got. Nice. Five minutes later he was back in the pool swimming happily.
Speaking of Gage, he also did his first attempt at swimming. He would
start at the steps and swim to me -- he would sink in the process but he
kept his mouth closed and kept moving toward me, even under water. A
great first step toward swimming!
