Aquatic Training

I have about a million blog post thoughts running through my mind right now and am having trouble figuring out how to organize them. I guess I'll start with my day today with Little M.

One of the things on my list of 100 things I wanted to accomplish was to play with Little M in the baby pool we got her back in May. Skip wanted to be there the first time we put her in it, but it's already the middle of August and we haven't found time to do it when we were both home yet {it didn't help that it rained pretty much EVERY DAY in June}. So anyways, Skip said it was fine that I play with her in the pool as soon as possible, even if he wasn't around. I figured today was perfect since it was extremely humid and almost 90*.

I set up Little M in her playpen outside this morning and opened up the garage to take out the pool {we had blown it up back in May and it was just sitting there waiting to be filled}. I dragged it out and found a perfect spot for it on the grass before I noticed the huge hole in it and heard the air continually draining out. I couldn't believe it!! I knew it wouldn't last forever, but I thought I would get at least ONE use out of it! I was furious...but I was also not going to let this prevent me from getting Little M in the pool! I loaded her up in the car and headed over to Walgreens. I found a great little pool on sale for only $8.00 {it was much smaller and no where near as nice as our original one, but it would do the job}.

Once we got home I pulled it out of the box and *attempted* to set it up. It did not need to be blown up as it just had a plastic bottom and vinyl sides. But since it had been folded up inside the tiny box, it refused to stand up straight. I know it would stand up once I filled it with water, but I couldn't fill it until it stood up {of course}. My solution was slightly unorthodox, but did the trick. I went down to the basement and brought up five huge juice jugs we have from BJ's. I positioned them inside around the rim and they kept the sides up enough for me to fill it up. It took about 1/2 hour to fill and then I let it sit for about two more hours to sit and hopefully warm up a bit {it didn't}. Then it was time to play!

I got Little M and I dressed in our bathing suits, grabbed some water-proof toys and her floating ring, and we headed outside. I was worried that since the water was still pretty cold, Little M would refuse to go in. Boy was I wrong! She absolutely loved it! She was so happy just floating around, kicking her feet, and splashing. I was sad that Skip wasn't there to see her in it the first time...but we really wanted to get *some* use out of it before the summer ended. And it's going to be over 90* for the next few days so he'll definitely get to see her in it soon. I'll post some of the pictures I took of her in it soon! {I have been sooo bad about uploading them recently!}

Edit: This post was actually written on Sunday, but I just completely forgot to post it! Skip has yet to see M in her pool {hopefully later today} but she loved splashing around again yesterday!!