Water Baby

As we've said earlier, Ellie loves the water. Once we started putting her in regular baths, that love became obvious. The first few times she was in a regular bath tub she soaked me and splashed so much we had water halfway up the wall around the tub. She kicks and splashes most of the time, and my washing her is simply an inconvenience now as it interrupts play time. She smiles while she plays in the tub and even when she douses her face she is such a stud she doesn't even care except that it surprises her some.

So, with that introduction and without further ado, this is a little video about our water baby. Enjoy!

The last part of the video is from Ellie's first experience "swimming". Wednesday the 29th of December we took her to the YMCA in the Spokane Valley. Their pools are fairly warm which is better for babies as they tend to be so temperature sensitive. We drove through crummy snow covered roads to get there, only to find out that because the YMCA's have all been updated now, it was going to cost us $30 to swim with Ellie! Ridiculous! But, we decided we were paying for the memory and the experience, not the 25 minutes she would last in the water. By the way, I think we spent an hour plus getting the three of us ready and showering afterward for 25 minutes of play, but still fun.

Jennifer got Ellie this swim suit before she was born, and I'm glad we didn't wait any longer to go swimming because Ellie has gotten so big she barely fit it!

Here Ellie is with Daddy.


And here I am trying to get her to look at Daddy for pictures.
Eventually we did get a couple where she would look at us. Like here, practicing her back float.
And here, enjoying chlorinated fingers.
It was so much fun to have Ellie in the water and to be able to show Steve the best ways to play with her. (Teaching parent-child swimming classes come in handy after all!)

In the end, the kid was exhausted! Pink chlorine eyes, wet, and grumpy that we woke her up from her nap in the car ride home, I think she really had a good time. The red eyes are deceptive as well as her eyes turn red when she gets tired. Especially since she now rubs her face and eyes with her fists when she is getting sleepy.
I know we loved making that memory with her. I can't wait till the next time we find a pool warm enough to take her to! Besides, we need to use up some of the swim diapers we bought!