Let's Go for a Sim (posted 5/28/2009)

Summertime is here!  How do I know this?  Is it because:

a) the temperatures have reached triple digits?

b) the school year is ending and every store is full of graduation memorabilia?

c) I felt the need to paint my toenails an obscenely bright pink color?

While all of the above are actually true, my sense of summer is based on when we start going swimming in the pool.  This is probably because there are two requirements that must be met before I will go swimming.  First, the weather has to be really, really hot.  So in May or June, it has to be over 100 before I’ll consider it hot enough.  And second, the pool has to be warm enough.  If it’s really hot outside, then a pool that is about 78-80 degrees is perfect.  But if it is only starting to warm up outside, that pool is never going to be warm enough for me to enjoy it.  Yes, I am currently well-insulated.  However, I am not a polar bear.

This year, we went swimming for the first time after being outdoors for about an hour when it was probably about 105 degrees.  That was fantastic.  Perfectly refreshing.  That was a couple of weeks ago, and now we hear Katy ask to go again almost every day.  “Kayee Wose go simming?”  “Kayee Wose wear simming suit?”  “Mommy go simming too?”

Yesterday I got home right after Mike and Katy had changed back into their clothes after playing in the pool.  Even though I already knew because Mike had told me, and because I saw her new Ariel beach towel hanging up to dry on our gate, as soon as Katy Rose greeted me she told me, “Kayee Wose go simming wif Daddy!!”

The next thing I need to do is get this child swimming lessons.  She has made a ton of progress over last summer, when swimming consisted of clinging to Mama for dear life.  Now she likes to stand on her own, and sometimes go out for a kick-kick-kick session (which needs a lot of practice before I’ll consider it real kicking).  But I don’t think she’s figured out the fact that if we weren’t right there with her, she would be going under.  She sometimes has no fear and since I’m not sure about the idea of using floaties on her arms, I just stay right there with her unless Mike is right there with her.  She did have one experience about a week ago where she went under for maybe a second—I grabbed her and she was okay, just a little scared.  I guess we’re just going to have to make the time and pay for lessons somewhere.

Well, here’s to summer!  Now let’s all go simming!