Swim Meet

Shhh…don’t tell Dad or GrampaStavo, but there may be another athletic endeavor in the picture.

At home we’ve been practicing throwing (as Destroy fires a Lego block into his cubby drawer WITH AUTHORITY) to hone our baseball skills (is anything hotter than a left-handed pitcher). But, as we haven’t yet determined handed-ness, we’re also working on passing the larger ball back and forth (we’re very good at headers) to see if they’re more adept at kicking a soccer-size ball. But, as they can’t even walk steadily yet, we may need to hold off on that sport too.

So yesterday, we packed up our bags of swim gear and headed to a friend’s house for some splashing fun in the summertime sun.

Tangent: It took me one stroller, laden with three bags plus two towels and floatie devices crammed into open areas to get us all over to the pool. In additional to snacks of Cheerios and bananas and straw sippy cups and multiple costume changes, the swim gear itself consists of a tube each of California Baby sunscreen, Pampers Splashers swim diapers, swim trunk shorts that look an awful lot like pants since the muppets haven’t quite climbed the height chart yet, SPF 50 swim shirt and floppy sun hat that the muppets hate hate hate (even if they do have cute turtles features.)

A friend pointed out to me that when we were children, pool parties generally involved the small child stripped down to their birthday suit and tossed in the pool with arm floaties while a relative took as many pictures as the 35mm Kodak camera would allow for future humiliation. Anyhoo – I digress…

This excursion was moms only, so I was a little concerned with how this would go should the boys realize they outnumbered me and revolt. But I had high hopes because the muppets have always shown themselves to be happy little water babies.

Even in the NICU, when they were bathed in a tub, the size of which would not hold their Lego’s today, they always enjoyed bath night. Perhaps they just enjoyed the respite from all those damn wires. Perhaps those baths were a brief escape from the gravity their little preemie bodies were fighting so hard. (I TOLD you to stay in the womb longer.)

These days, when it comes to bath night, I might as well suit up. They’ve got the concept of “splashing” mastered. I mean, these little dudes are Olympic caliber splashers – do not doubt that 25 pound persons can soak an entire room and all the inhabitants, even when the water is meticulously filled no higher than the “safe” line on the bath seat.

Once I got the boys suited up and the palm tree floatable devices inflated (so much for the idea that swimming would require less equipment piled in the back of the Mom-Mobile), I impressively remembered to put on my own suit and we were ready for fun!

Both boys broke into great big grins. They immediately commenced an impressive exhibit of synchronized splashing. Their floatable thrones were a tropical blow up replica of a palm tree and sandy beach (aka paradise). The palm leaf sun-shade doubled as a sail in the slight breeze. They whooshed around the pool as the moms took turns chasing after them. (Three moms, five kids – all under the age of 3. We did a lot of chasing…) Slightly reclined in the seats, Search and Destroy fully embraced the water and were the epitome of cool.

Out of the water, the muppets are working hard to find their land legs. Search can take several steps, appearing to be diligently working on his horizontal propulsion abilities. Plopped in the pool and his little legs kicked furiously to cycle along with the momentum of his plastic sail. “I’m freeeeeeeee…” he squealed as he paddled madly around the pool.

Proving further that twins have polar-opposite personalities, Destroy is far more focused on his vertical acclimation. The kid is a climber. (I am apprehensively awaiting the inevitable “thud” from the nursery – crib to floor.) Once in the pool, Destroy decided that climbing was far easier and proceeded to spend the afternoon trying to extricate himself from the tropical floatie. Ultimately, he ended up resembling the desktop water bird kick-knack that bobs its beak into a glass repeatedly. Clearly, he’s the diver. Surprisingly, he didn’t mind getting his face wet as he repeatedly plunked it into the pool. Sadly, we had to cut that adventure a bit short when he kept gnawing on the inner tube portion of his floatie. Did you know baby teeth are *really* sharp?

Once back inside, the muppets ate a slice of pizza, a bowl of Cheerios and a banana. Each. Destroy then managed to get his hands on an apple slice – which was discovered when I looked over and found his apple cheeks looking decidedly more chipmunk-like. Apparently they are trying to emulate Michael Phelps. (I think we may need to work on some additional height for that one…)

Maybe after the movement and music semester is over, we’ll look into some swim classes. Not to mention a swim career might be fate – the local International Swim Center is located on Patricia Drive after all…

(PS. Sadly, there are no pictures to accompany this blog since I do not have a waterproof camera. Bad Mommy Blogger! But I did upload a few new videos to help satiate muppet withdrawal cravings.)