We all went swimming today. And it wasn’t half as traumatic and stressful as I’d envisaged.
We didn’t bother with the ‘baby change’ cubicle. D was happy enough sitting on the bench while mummy got changed, and was then very happy to be manhandled into her own cossy. It was going fabulously well until a random woman who didn’t have her glasses on clonked D on the head with the door of her locker. Wailing commenced. But only for a minute. It was more a ‘How dare you!’ wail than an ‘Ow!’ wail. The woman made up for it by having a small child with her. D made friends and they held hands.
The water was rather exciting too. Warmer than I expected. And less crowded. D didn’t exactly know what to do with herself. There were funny loud noises and lots of splishy splashy stuff. She decided that the best course of action was to have wiiiiiiide eyes.
In amongst the taking-it-all-in stares, we got a few smiles out of her as we swooshed her through the water. We also got a few ‘plehh, ftuff’s out of her when she got funny tasting water in her mouth.
We managed a good twenty minutes in the water before she started to get a bit grumpy. We thought it best to get her out before grumping turned into wails and shivers. She was remarkably good getting changed too. I wrapped her up in a towel and put her on the floor while I got dressed. She decided that the best bit of swimming was being able to stare at people’s ankles under the cubicle door.
So our first swimming experience was completed with only one small strop, and as that wasn’t my fault it doesn’t count. I think we shall be going back very soon.
Mummy and daddy got fish and chips afterwards too. Get in.