His disappointment did not have long to last, however, because when Dad-o and Mommy set off on the bicycles, Grandma and Jonathan headed for the pool. I had thought we might swim for a while, and then maybe play with the Brio train, or read stories, or ride in the red wagon, or maybe go to the playground. However, when Dad-o poked his head over the fence some three hours later, we were still swimming! And Jonathan continued swimming while Dad-o and Mommy joined us, and after Dad-o got out, and after Grandma left to fix dinner. Only Mommy’s suggestion that he might like some milk eventually enticed Jonathan out of the water.
I love the freedom of being a grandmother. I can have no agenda, no discipline responsibilities beyond setting and enforcing some basic rules (e.g. “you may throw the rings into the pool, but not the rock”), no need to teach him anything in particular, no reason not to let him be the writer, director, and producer of our play. In the pool, Jonathan is the boss.
Today he decided, on his own, to work on holding the edge of the pool and walking with his hands along the bricks. He practiced several times: jumping from the steps into my arms, having me help him swim to the side, then inching his hands along until he could reach the steps with his feet again. The trickiest part was negotiating the corner, but it did not take many sessions before he was confidently holding on with one hand and making large reaches with the other. He also discovered that the returning water jet tickles his belly!
We pretended Jonathan was a whale, who liked to “jump and splash” in the water. The downward splash frequently wet his face, and he made further progress in getting comfortable with having his head partially submerged.
In addition to the usual way of jumping off the side, which is into my arms with his head remaining above the surface, we tried “super jumps,” in which I let him go all the way under before catching him. After several times, he decided, “no super jump.” That was fine with me; I know now that he will file the experience away and bring it out again when he is ready.
He also asked to practice floating on his back, and we added a new version: being held in my arms in a reclining, though not completely flat and definitely not relaxed, position while I spun “’round and ’round!” first one way, then the other. I’m not sure what it accomplished, other than giving him another opportunity to be semi-supine and feel the water splashing in his face, but it was fun, and great vestibular stimulation for both of us.
Once again—typical of most children, it seems—he was reluctant to show Mommy and Dad-o his prowess when they returned, but he has advanced so much that some of it was apparent, anyway. He wouldn’t “show” Heather his hand-walking along the wall, but did it naturally when they went to the deep end and that’s how she moved along the wall herself. She also noticed his greatly increased confidence, as she had to adjust her reactions; he no longer clings to her, but eagerly projects himself from her arms, trusting she will follow.
