Pool time

This has definitely been the summer of the pool. It has been incredibly hot, even for Houston, with temperatures over 100 degrees for several days in a row. But in a way this has pleased Sarah and I for it merely confirms the correctness of our decision to move to a house a block away from the local pool. We have been going more or less every day unless there's some particular reason we can't.

Jamie's swimming continues to improve. He is taking lessons again and despite some of the usual kvetching, he is quite into and very proud of himself. It's been very interesting to watch the simultaneous development of Jamie's swimming skills and his overall sense of confidence and adventurousness. I'm not sure which came first, but it's great to see either way. He can front crawl a good long way now, can swim underwater and can also go down and sit on the bottom of the pool. Perhaps most reassuringly to us, he can also jump into water over his head, come up and swim to the edge. As you can see from the above picture, he has also discovered the belly flop. He is totally unfazed by it of course.

Connor has also started swim lessons. He has never been the least bit afraid of the water, but happily he is beginning to acquire some skills to go along with the attitude. He has been watching Jamie for some time now and so he understands and mimics the basic motions. We have him in a swim vest and he can actually motor himself right along without being held now. It's very cute because he gets this big toothy grin, sticks head up above the water and paddles away. Actually, he looks quite a lot like a dog swimming, especially in the ration of effort to actual movement.