Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Swimming in the Big Pool

I'm sure you've already heard about the city strike in Toronto. Although the garbage and daycare closures are getting most of the attention we've been hardly (or not at all) affected by those things so far. Where we've been hit by the strike is the shut down of the Parks and Recreation department. Clare's daycare has had to cancel a couple of trips to a city petting zoo because of it. Clare's swimming lessons were also canceled.

The swimming lessons were in part for Clare and in part for me. We're going cottaging in August and I had really hoped to expose Clare to proper swimming before we left. I also know that a big part of those lessons is teaching parents how to help their kids be comfortable and safe in the water. Well, a few weeks ago, when we were in St. Catharines for the funeral, I stole an opportunity to introduce Clare to swimming. She wore this fantastic little suit that Jamie and Cecilia handed down to her. It's kind of like a wetsuit except it's filled around the chest with floaty material to help her keep her head above water. It makes her look like she's in a Superman costume.

I had been guessing that it was going to take her a while to become comfortable with swimming. She's normally tentative about trying new things (like not wanting to go into the 'caves' at the zoo). Boy - was I wrong! Clare took to swimming like, well, like a fish! She wanted to jump right in! I actually had to get Rob to hold her back for a minute so that I could get myself wet and adjusted before she charged in. Anyway, her enthusiasm was a BIG surprise to Rob and I, to say the least.

Once she got into the pool, she had as much fun as she thought she would. There was a lot of laughing and giggling and kicking of feet. There were some other kids in the pool where we were who also captured Clare's attention. She kept trying to figure out how to get over to them so that she could play. She managed to content herself with waving and shouting 'Hi' from where she was, in my arms.

Rob managed to capture a tiny bit of her glee on this video of Clare's first swim (1minute43):



Talk to you soon,

B.

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