Water Baby

Remember back at the beginning of the summer, I told you that Athena seemed to resist water? Well, our project "Force-the-Baby-to-Like-the-Wet-Stuff" seems to be a complete success. Here we are at the commemorative end of summer (just past Labor Day weekend), and we've seen a complete turn-around.

Athena has grown to really enjoy the water park at day care. She ran, frolicked, and splashed with the rest of her class for the majority of the summer. Bath time is still enjoyable for her, although oddly, she doesn't really play with her toys in the tub so much. But she sits patiently while you dump water over her head and shampoo her hair.

In addition to bath time, she also enjoys a morning shower. Sometimes it's with me, sometimes with Chris, and sometimes, she lasts through both our showers. She usually gets in, then stands there with her head down until she's completely wet. Finally, she totters over to the low shelf in our shower and takes all the shampoo bottles and soaps and puts them on the floor of the shower, creating a little obstacle course for whichever parent happens to be there with her at the time. You can put the bottles back on the shelf, but she will quickly correct your error and put them back on the floor.

And then, the final test... the pool. We have been trying to get to the pool each weekend for the last month and a half or so. We really slacked off about it at the beginning of the summer, but towards the end, when it was the hottest, we became more regular about it. It helped that we are heathens and found that Sunday morning, our community pool is completely deserted. We get the whole place to ourselves, which is quite nice.

So this weekend (Labor Day), we couldn't get there until Monday... the last day the pool is open for the season. And rather than go in the morning (which was actually a bit chilly), we packed up our gear and walked up there in the late afternoon. I looked at Athena and said, "Would you like to go to the pool?!" She ran to her room and grabbed her little swimming shoes! Chris was actually trying to resist going, but since she clearly wanted to go, he gave in.

We loaded her and the beach towels into her little red wagon that her Aunt Nicky gave her, and we marched up to the pool. For the first time, Athena REALLY seemed to enjoy being in the pool. She liked watching all the older kids splash around, and she wanted to "swim" from Mommy to Daddy and back again. We played until her teeth started to chatter, and then packed up to go.

It's really a shame it took her to the end of the summer to really enjoy the pool. Now we won't see one again until DisneyWorld. Oh, but that's only two months away! *bounce, bounce, bounce*