Thursday, July 31, 2008

Pool Time!

Some of my very favorite childhood memories involve swimming! Like most kids, all I wanted to do ALL the time was swim, and I never wanted to get out of the pool. I was lucky, because my Grandma had this AMAZING pool in her backyard and I spent countless hours swimming in it with my cousins. And not just in the summer! I was blessed to grow up in San Diego, where pool weather really does last ALL year long. I miss that pool!
Here I am, the one on the right, 18 years ago or so swimming with my cousin Jessica!

I still love swimming, and it's one of my favorite things about summer. Although wouldn't it be great if we could still put swimsuits on and feel just like we did when we were little? No little kid feels self-conscious about themselves in a swimsuit! And almost all adults do! Life was so much better before darn puberty hit and we became aware of our bodies.

Swimming with a baby is a very different thing entirely than swimming before you have children. Now I have to worry about swim diapers, the right amount of sunscreen, how to peel a wet swimsuit off a wiggly baby, and a thousand other things. It's enough to make a "relaxing swim" sound not so relaxing! But it's still worth it to see their reactions and take some great pictures.

Here's one of my favorite pictures of Kirsten, in July a year ago in San Diego. She didn't even get in the water other than her feet, but I sure had fun with the camera! She was two months old in these pictures! Wasn't she precious?

And. . . here's Kirsten in the pool a year later, this July. Yeah, she was not so content this time. It was mostly because unlike the private pool in San Diego, this was in our noisy community pool and it was PACKED with kids! Poor Kirsten got really overwhelmed and scared. She kept crying until I took her out of her floaty and held her.


So far, I've only taken Kirsten swimming twice this summer. I would do it much more often though if I knew anyone who had a pool in their backyard and I didn't have to go to the noisy, crowded community pool. But this is Seattle, and NOBODY has pools in their backyards! I guess maybe some people do, but nobody I have met! In San Diego, it's just something that goes with having a nice house. You have a nice house, you have a pool too. But here in the land of endlessly misty, green, and gorgeous, backyard pools seem to be just a thing of my California dreams.

22 comments:

  1. It's funny but I hate swimming and would never do it if my children weren't around. But since they love the water, I love to be in it with them!

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  2. My kids are starting to like swimming, too. My problem is shelling out the $8 to swim for 90 minutes! And I don't know a single person in Utah that has a pool, even people with nice homes. We had one from the time I was 12, and our home (in Kansas) wasn't even really big or expensive. But about 1/4 of the homes in our neighborhood had pools.

    I HAVE had the molten chocolate cake and I LOVE it. I get it about every other time we go to Chili's - we love Chili's! And those shoes are at Target right now. They aren't on sale, which means I normally wouldn't get them, but I HAD to have them. :o)

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  3. And you haven't changed a bit! I could totally tell which kid is you.

    Have you ordered Breaking Dawn? Did you see that Stephenie Meyer is on the Today show today?

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  4. What darling pictures! I love both the posing 2 month old princess with the shock of dark hair and the "I'm not happy, Mommy" shot. Don't forget to take pictures of the less than perfect moments because they help you remember so much more about a day, a situation, or an attitude. Some of my favorite shots of my kids are when they're throttling each other.

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  5. I lived at the pool when I was a kid. My friends and I would all meet up at the pool when it opened at 10:00 and most days we would stay until 4:45. (It took me 15 minutes to ride my bike home and get there before my dad got home from work.) I really wish I could afford a pool membership right now. Maybe next summer we'll get one.
    When we lived in an apartment I would take my son down to the pool and put him in one of those floaty things. It took him awhile but he warmed up to it and really started having fun splashing around. My daughter has not been in a big pool yet, just the kiddie pool in our back yard but she is starting to have fun in it and not run away from it as fast as she can.

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  6. Your little Kristen is adorable!
    Its amazing how one minute they won't put their face in the water(last summer at 4),and now mine is diving!
    thanx for visiting me!

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  7. Hey nice pics Ashley.... :)

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  8. I grew up in Califonia, too. We had pools at all of our homes. If the house didn't come with one, we built one. It's just something you have to have there -- we lived in Northern Central Cali where it gets into the 100s during the summer. I miss having a pool. Not only did we have a pool, but I was on swim team from the time I could swim until I left for college.

    I love the picture of Kirsten at two months! She looks like a Hollywood glam girl!

    Guess what? My husband saw that you commented on one of my posts. He checked out your blog and realized that he works with your husband. What a small world!

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  9. Amber: You hate swimming? That's hard for me to imagine. But then I hate running and lots of people can't imagine that too. :)

    Alyssa: Yeah, it's annoying to pay for the swimming. Our community pool only charges $2 or something like that and the baby is free so it's not as expensive, at least for now until I have more kids. What part of Kansas did you grow up in? I've visited my cousins several times, they live outside Kansas City in Overland Park. I LOVE the lightning storms there!!
    I LOVE the molten chocolate cake too, but a few months ago they CLOSED down the Chili's restaurants in Seattle. Now there is only one left and guess where it is? Inside the airport! Such a bummer! I crave that dessert constantly and can't ever have it! Be glad there are tons of them in Utah!
    I will have to check out those shoes at Target. :)
    And YES, I have ordered Breaking Dawn from Border's! I'm so excited! I will probably pick it up on Saturday though. I'd like to go at midnight but I'd have to go by myself since I don't have any friends here who read it too. Are you going at midnight? Are you super excited?

    Cookie Baker: Thanks for the advice! I usually don't think to get out the camera when she's crying, it mostly happens accidentally, but you are so right that I'll want to remember what she looked like during those times too.

    Jeanette: That's the good thing about living in apartments... the pools. I have a baby pool I want to set up on our patio but I haven't blown it up yet. I'm sure she'll be able to have fun in it, when she's not surrounded by tons of noisy kids.

    Jungle Dream and Harsh: Thank you!!!

    Kerrie: Thanks so much! And WOW, how crazy that our husbands work together!!!

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  10. I know -- what a small world. My husband's name is Jamey. I guess they both used to work in the XOC and now they both work for MS. I think I have that right...

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  11. Super Cute pictures!!!! i love the ones of your baby falling asleep on the float!!!

    are you excited about BREAKING DAWN????? wooo hoo...i know i am!!!

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  12. Omigosh, look at that hair!!! She is darling!!!

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  13. Kirsten is so beautiful! I love that picture of her when she was a baby. So much hair and so cute!

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  14. it definitely is harder to get in the swimming mood when it's so hard to find pools. living in the oc (although we don't have a pool of our own) i've found it very important to start swimming at a very young age. these days, my boys are fish!

    btw thanks for visiting us over at just spotted!

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  15. I've always loved that first bebe pic of Kirsten in the pool, such a gorgeous pic of her! I definitely agree though, why can't all my body insecurities go away? Or at least why can't I magically be hot and sexy!?!?!

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  16. So cute!!!! How stinkin' cute is she?? My goodness!

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  17. Wow, she had a ton of hair at 2 months, my kids didn't have that much until they were three:)

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  18. What fun pictures! Funny that I remember swimming with you and Misi at the Cranny's pool and Seapoint all those years ago! It was so fun! And I love those pictures of Kirsten just relaxing on the water! What a cutie!

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  19. She is just too cute laying there all comfortabl-like chillin' by the poolside.

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  20. Merrianne: Thank you!!! And YES, you know I'm super excited! I still haven't gotten my copy yet!

    Da Bergs and Julianne: Thanks! Kirsten had insane amounts of hair right when she was born. It was SO dark and SO thick! It was really startling for people to see it when she was so little, and I got comments ALL the time!

    Kelly: Yes, having friends with pools in their yards is SUCH a fun thing! You must be having a great summer!

    Rachel: I hear ya! I wish I could be like the little kids with no body security issues at all! Or just magically have a perfect body, haha!

    Shabbyness: Thanks! I think she's pretty cute too. :)

    Jen: I know! The hair was insane!!!

    Ruth: I DO have fun memories of swimming with you too! I miss those times! And thank you!!!

    Laura: Thank you for your nice comment!

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  21. And remember the... um... Oh, whatweretherename's pool near your house? Lots of fun times swimming with you!

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  22. she was only 2 months old! she was one big baby!!! so cute with her baba right next to her. and love the stripey swimsuit

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