Yesterday we took Noah to Karori Pool (this was his third swim in as many weeks after a couple of not so great attempts in New Plymouth both of the Sundays we were there). We had taken him to Karori Pool half a dozen times last summer (not that he would have remembered mind you), and we enjoy the location as it is close to home and not as busy as some of the large aquatic centres around Wellington.
Noah spent the better part of the first 10 minutes desperately crying and clinging madly to me (Meg) and any attempt to sit him deeper in the water resulted in even more vigorous crying. We thought we were going to have to get out at that point, but we managed to save the day by taking it right back to basics and sitting in the shallowest pool (about 0.25m). Daddy then put his face in the water and blew bubbles encouraging Noah to do the same. Once he was comfortable with this, we then rolled a ball back and forth with Noah sitting on my knees which he enjoyed. Eventually we were able to graduate to the 0.40m pool (Noah not letting go of us for a moment though), enjoying putting our hands and faces into the water spouts and under the water fountain. After some time, we managed to get him into the 0.8m pool and then swam him along holding him under his shoulders - all in all we spent an hour in the pool, a vast improvement on all our recent attempts.
Today (Sunday) we went back to the pool (there's nothing like striking while the iron is hot!) and went from baby pool to bigger and then biggest kiddy pool in about 5 minutes flat. Today Noah was like a fish in the water, happily kicking his legs as we swam him along, going under the waterfalls, being dunked and letting us stand him on the side and then hold him as we 'jumped' him into the water. He even held onto a flutterboard with us holding onto him around the middle and happily kicked away. In the middle pool (which he can stand up in) he even ventured for a walk in the water on his own which was the thing he seemed most scared of doing yesterday.
This was yet another introduction to a new experience that has been so VERY Noah...so unhappy and cautious to begin with, yet loving it once he's had time to adjust. After the wheelbarrow experience at M&D's where he cried and cried the first time and subsequently loved it, riding in Poppa's barrow has definitely made an impression on him as all he has wanted to do this week is be taken for a ride around the house in his own wooden trolley (our city version of a wheelbarrow!).
Our first full week of work for a while awaits us tomorrow..it's bound to be a bit of a shock to the system!
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