Keeping Up

Seeing as we had no water at home and the weather was piping hot we didn’t feel all that guilty to be heading off to the beach to cool down and enjoy the water … the work at home would just have to wait another day.  Ange and I headed off to Binbrook for some cool-down time.

 

Up until the point Matthew did not really swim … he would just play in the water up to about his knees.  As the kids ran off to the water he did comment that Vivian would want to go out deeper and I told him he didn’t have to go out deep, he could just swim at the edge like he usually does

I was still at our table a little bit later when I looked up and seen all the kids playing but couldn’t find Matthew.  After searching the general area I discovered a boy struggling on his back trying to sit up, flip over, or whatever it was he was doing.  I realized that Ange had no idea that he did not actually know how to use the lifejacket.  I had just dropped everything to go run help him when Ange discovered him and helped him out.

Not to be outdone by Vivian, Matthew was out there in the water and quickly mastered the concept of the lifejacket.  He was so proud of himself as he continually showed me how he could kick and float and go deeper. 

    

We no longer found Matthew at the waters edge all the time, this was the beginning of his waterrat days.  A few days later we set up our pool … if you recall this story you will remember that our dog ripped up our pool … but thanks to freecycle we aquired another free pool, this one being 4 feet deep (the last one was 3 feet).   It was a lovely size pool and thoroughly enjoyed this summer.  Matthew could just stand in the pool (guess that means he grew a foot over the winter as last year he could just stand in that pool) and became quite the little swimmer over the summer.  It was a nice size for the kids, big enough and deep enough to get some good playing in.  And Rob often enjoyed it too, a swim with the kids, a quick swim after being in the barn or at night to cool down before bed.  It is too bad that after the scorching July we had it suddenly cooled right down and by the middle of August the nights were so cool and the days not as hot that the kids weren’t always so inclined to go out and get wet, and often only spent a short time in the pool before they came out shivering.  Guess we’ll always be complaining about the weather … you can never win in that department.  But the pool was great and I love having it in the yard to keep the kids entertained and cooled down.  When the weathers right it’s well used!