The Geekyinlaws' lovely home in South Africa had a pool. It took several days of cautiously splashing on the steps, but eventually Geekygirl embraced the water, and went "into the deep", as she described it when supported by Daddy or Mummy. Her love of the pool was enhanced by the impulse purchase by her grandmother of a fancy new swimsuit. I had finally managed to find cute sun protective swimsuits online before we left (for some reason, even here in Sunny California it is not possible to find swimsuits in stores in December), but on an outing with her grandparents to the estate shop, Geekygirl convinced her grandmother to buy her another suit, a much fancier bright orange and purple frilly shorts and top suit with a dolphin on it. The girl is going to be quite a shopper, I can tell. When confronted with a rack of clothes, she will leaf through excitedly, pulling items forward and exclaiming "look at this, this is sooo beautiful, Mummy, this would look so pretty on me".
Now that we are back home, Geekygirl has her fancy swimsuit to wear, and nowhere to where it. Of course we have nice public pools here, but the sad fact of 'dual working parent with two kid' life is that finding the time and energy to take the kids swimming has not happened yet. We used to take Geekygirl when she was a baby, but with the both of them it just hasn't happened. There always seem to be other things to do on the weekend.
Since swimming classes are a good intention that may take some time to be acted upon, in the mean time I'm thankful for a child with a vivid imagination. The jet lag induced bed hopping that was going on last week caused us to succumb to something we have never actually done in the last 3 years of child rearing, kicking Daddy onto the couch. Nights are chilly now, so we had pulled out a sleeping bag. A bright blue one.
The following morning, I stepped out of my shower to hear "Don't fall in the deep, Mummy". My foot had landed upon the sleeping bag, now spread out across the dining room floor. Geekygirl and several of her dolls, all attired in swimwear, were "swimming" on the sleeping bag! All week, Geekygirl has been exchanging her pajamas for her swimsuit every morning, and jumping into her "pool". It is only with a lot of persuasion I can get her into regular clothes in order to get out of the house for daycare!
I suppose we really should take them swimming. Or maybe our next door neighbours will let her have a dunk in their hot tub?!
