July 8, 2012

Swimming Fun!

Santi has recently really gotten into the pool and the idea of swimming. Since he's only 2 he's obviously not swimming laps, but he loves to splash around. About 6 months ago he discovered the joy of laying down in the tub and has never looked back. Now bath time is filled with splashes, laying down and is a lot of fun for him.

So summer seems to finally have arrived in Seattle, and we went out and bought an inflatable pool ($9.99 at Target...such a steal!) Santi is obsessed with it. He talks about it when he sees it out the window. He's constantly trying to go in it even without water. He even brought his favorite stuffed dog outside one day and was putting the dog (who he has named Rocky after my brother in law and sister in law's dog) in there, and pretending Rocky was swimming.

Since it's been warmer, I've been putting  him in the pool in the late afternoon after he wakes up from his nap. Sometimes Tito and I will go in with him, and he's really excited to splash and throw things in the water to see what they do, as well as occasionally sit down in the water.

So today, the predicted high here was 81 degrees, so we decided to try going to a local pool that has recently been renovated. It was either that or the beach and we decided the pool would be a lot warmer. So we packed up everything for two kids and us (4 towels, extra clothes for the kids, swim diapers, camera, etc.) and headed out. We got there right before they opened and got our stuff situated before heading in. The pool is awesome. It has a special toddler area with a playset and slides right into the pool, plenty of water streams that come out for the kids to splash in, and also has a lazy river, regular pool and a full sized, two story water slide. They weren't letting kids onto the water slide when we were there as they were doing swim lessons on that side, but we got to play in the toddler area. Santi LOVED it. That's actually a gross understatement. He had such a blast splashing around, going up to his chin when he sat down, allowing us to hold him and run through the splashing features, etc. We also had Gaby sitting in the calmer areas of water (although the poor thing got sprayed in the face more than once by some kids who weren't being watched by their parents and were shooting water guns in our direction.) But she did well and seemed to really enjoy it too.

We paid about $14 to get in, and were there for about 2 hours...definitely worth it to see the smile on Santi's face, and the happy and tired kiddos as we drove home (Santi actually fell asleep in the car and Tito carried him upstairs where he slept for almost 4 hours!)

Here's a few shots from the day:







Super humid pool = foggy photos!
 


Chubby baby legs while she nursed