…and then we got into the swimming pool. I handed the boy over to his mother for a quick spin in the water. This would be the moment of truth. Would he be happy with this giant pool of fun or terrified by the possibility for horror? As my wife completed her spin in the pool we realized that our son would end up liking the water as he had already started giggling.
Once he saw me at the other end of the pool (still trying to convince myself to take the plunge and suffer the brief second of lung-stopping-shock to get my upper body into the water) he gave a bigger smile still and laughed and laughed and laughed. I think I can explain what our son was thinking during this moment. It must have been something like: Mommy and Daddy and Me are in a big, huge, giant bathtub all together so we can splash and laugh and splash. This is fun!
For the next thirty or so minutes we moved around in the pool. We went in circles and we went back and forth. We’d follow Mommy as she did a lap or make big splashes with our hands. We would try to float and try to swim but whatever we did we made sure to laugh through it all. As the time wore on we could see that our son (wearing only a swimming diaper) was starting to get cold. It started with a little lip-shiver and progressed quite quickly to some visible goosebumps. Our fun time in the water was coming to an end and despite the joyous time we had together (especially my wife and I) we knew it was time to get out and dry off. At the end of the day we’re not completely sure why we waited so long to take our son swimming. He felt safe and secure with Mom and Dad and couldn’t have had a better time.