Indian Summer, Growth Spurt, and Cheating Bathers

October 23rd, 2009

I just want to say I’ve been having the most wonderful week with this kid this week. Beautiful weather has allowed us to go to the beach, spend hours and hours at the Duck Park, walk around, and today, go to Irvine and do some swimming. We were trying out a new swimmie—a little leotard with a built-in inner-tube. Initially, Vibb fell into a log-roll from which she could not right herself, and I had to race to rescue her. Face in, face out, face in, face out of the water. She came up a little shell-shocked but in no way deterred. (Megan and I were cracking up.) She got used to it fairly quickly and then had what she has been dreaming of since Hawaii: Freedom in the pool. She was able to be up to three feet away from me, and she really amazed me. By the end of the time we spent there, she was motoring around on her own power with a sort of turtle-ish wiggle to reach the wall, the steps, me. She also proved she could get in the pool on her own, and not just at the steps; she backed her way in from the side and landed squat on the little tube-suit. The only bummer part of the day was when she repeatedly exited the pool and raced to the deep-end, where she was again and again pissed at being thwarted from backing in to 8-foot-deep water like she wanted to.

Several other moments this week have surprised me. A recent growth spurt seems to have pushed her over some kind of edge into bigger-girl territory. Since Hawaii, she’s been refusing to sit in high-chairs, and this has been mostly disastrous. An unrestrained toddler = “Don’t break the restaurant. DOH!” But this week, she ate several meals in restaurants where she sat nicely in her seat at the booth and was good and made hardly any mess. Given, today’s lunch was not one of those times, but there have indeed been several of them. This week she also showed her stuff at the playground. She climbed to the top perch of the slide, grabbed the little bar and swung a few times before swinging onto the slide and sailing down. Sliding I’ve seen before, but not the swinging. She also whined and begged for me to put her on a big-kid swing, until I thought, ‘Fine, let’s put you on there, and when you fall off, you’ll stop asking.’ But I was the one in for a lesson: she SCHOOLED me! Add to that tonight’s use of her rocking-horse as a step-stool. Yes, she reportedly climbed onto Mr. Pony’s back to reach the living room TV. Dangerous, yes, but also AGILE! And RESOURCEFUL!

I said “reportedly” about that last anecdote, because I had gone upstairs, wanting to take a bath by myself. I take a bath with Vibble a few nights a week, and she loves having a playpal. But tonight I just wanted a solo soak, so Steve kept her downstairs with him. At some point, though, she slipped his guard and went looking for me. Imagine the look on her face when she threw open the bathroom door, and there I was, in the bathtub, WITHOUT HER. It was a look of utter betrayedness. She stood stunned a moment and then began removing her diaper to join me.

2 Responses to “Indian Summer, Growth Spurt, and Cheating Bathers”

  1. ma Says:

    Mom….really…don’t you know by now that you are not allowed to do ANYTHING by yourself?

    I can just picture this, and I’m still laughing.

    Someday, you’ll open the bathroom door to get something and you’ll hear “MOM!!! Can’t you see I’m IN HERE? What are you DOING??? GET OUT!!!” And a little smile will come on your face as you slowly close the door, because you’ll remember….

    :-)

  2. Abigail Says:

    I tried to see the pictures but it wanted a username and password?

    Both my kids wear life jackets in the pool currently. A friend of mine has a father who was in the coast guard and his recommendation to her was to get coast guard approved jackets. Stefan has one of those shirts with built in floatation that’s a Type III, I believe, so it wouldn’t right him if he passed out but it helps keep him afloat. Just FYI. :)

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