Water Boy

Jake has loved the pool pretty much since the first time he was in it. He is definitely our little water boy.

He does great with his arm floaties on. He will jump in & out of the pool a million times, as well as, jumping off the diving board. He has no fear.

And then he progressed to cannon ball jumping. The 1st couple of times were so cute and he would hold his knees the whole time he was walking on the diving board. And then finally he got that he was supposed to grab his knees once he was in the air. It was so surprising to see how big of a splash my little 3 year old could make.

Of course when you are doing cannon balls what fear is there in diving off daddies shoulders too?

I am pretty sure he will be officially swimming by the end of the summer, but I am hoping the arm floaties stay for a little longer. I feel safer when he has them on and he isn't as cautious as he used to be.

I can't believe how big and brave he is getting.

Can we call it summer?

Last week we (well Jake & Caleb) had their first swim of the season. I was tempted to think summer might really be here. However, the last couple days it has been a little cooler.

The couple days the boys spent in the water it was in the high 80's, but the water was still freezing. How is that kids don't care what the temperature of the water is. I think half the time the boys were in the water they were shivering, but loving every minute of it.

Jake went off the diving board to break himself in and as soon as he hit the water you could see his breath was taken away from the frigid water. After  taking a couple minutes to get adjusted he was back to his normal fish self.

My sister & I of course enjoyed relaxing by the pool while the boys swam. Despite burning up we weren't tempted to get all the way in...still too cold for us.

Hoping it will be back to pool time as normal this weekend!

Fearless

We spent the day playing in the pool with some of our very sweet friends. The pool we were at had a fairly good sized tunnel water slide.

Jake said he wanted to go down the slide so I walked with him to the top. Getting ready to get in with him for us to go down together...he says "my do it by myself."  So I let him go 1st and then a minute later I came down the slide.

As soon as he was out of the water enough to talk he said he was going to do it again.
This time I stayed in the pool while he walked up the hill to the top of the slide. (can you see Jake walking up the hill?)
And went down again....

Honestly he probably went down the slide, climb the steps out of the pool, & walked back up to the top of the slide close to 100 times!!!

He LOVED IT!!!

He had no fear and even when he would come down side ways, or on his belly, or facing backward...and even when we heard a loud thump inside the slide as he was coming down....

Every time he got to the end of the slide he would say "I am going again."

It was great to watch him have so much fun...and I will say the water slide is a ton of fun!!

They have tricks

All the boys love jumping off Nana & Pawpaw's diving board. The bigger boys have mastered their "tricks" even Jake thinks his jump is a trick. Caleb is still a little too scared to jump off. It is a little hard to see who is who but I couldn't get any closer without it being super blurry. Austin jumps 1st then Tyler, then Jake, & Caleb is last standing on the board.

It ended with a *boom*

We had such a great time over the 4th of July holiday weekend. It was so relaxing, but fun to be around our family all weekend.

Sunday of course we started the morning at church(with a fairly light crowd). Then we headed straight over to my parents house. Since they have a pool in their backyard this is where we spend all most all of our weekends during the summer. So off we were to spend the afternoon in the pool. Loving the water and soaking up as much sun as we could.  Plus eating some super yummy all american food...hot dogs, hamburgers, baked beans, & pasta salad. mmm....so good!

Then Sunday night we headed to our small town down town area for some fun festivities and of course ending the night with a great fireworks show. Jake loved the fireworks(well for at least 5 min., but what can you expect with a 2 year old attention span). He kept pointing them out and shouting that was my favorite one(to each one). While we were waiting for the fireworks Jake played with some sparklers and kept asking for more.

Once we were done there we headed back to my parents for our own personal fireworks show. Of course they were just the Georgia legal ones that don't do much but spark or make noise. Again Jake loved these and sat in a chair watching as Daddy lite fire works one at a time...and seeming completely mesmerized by them.

Water Boy!!

It is official...Jake LOVES the water.

We started the summer a little slow. He refused to wear any type of float and would only go in the water if someone was holding him. Well, really he had to be holding you. He would squeeze your fingers so tight to ensure you wouldn't be able to let go of him.

He did enjoy sitting on the steps and was perfectly content to get in & out of the water at the steps.

But something happened about a week ago....

He ASKED me to put his arm floaties on him. Still he wanted someone holding him while he wore them.
I started letting go of him and he would cry and freak out(yes, I know mean mommy). After about 2-3 times of this he realized he was floating even when no one was holding on to him. He was fine just being in the water (as long as I was close by).

Over the weekend he got totally brave and just wanted to be in the water ALL.THE.TIME.

Then the inevitable happened he said he wanted to jump off the diving board. So he would climb up the diving board and once on top I(or pawpaw) would drop him off the edge into the water. I was worried he wouldn't jump out far enough and hit his head. We did this a few times. Then he was jumping off the top step. And really pushing off and getting out in the water.

The next day of course he asked to jump off the board again. This time he jumped out all by himself(see video here) And then he was on repeat. He would jump off the board several times in a row, then was back to jumping off the step several times. With some swimming in between.

He is officially a water loving, swimming boy!!! My next plan is to slowly let the air out of the arm floats(yep, mean mom again). He kicks great and moves his arms when he is swimming with them on. I figure by slowly letting the air out he might be swimming by the end of the summer.

Diving Superman

I used to be able to post videos on the blog...I can't figure out for the life of me where the stinking button went that allowed me to upload a video. If anyone in blog world can help please let me know.

I am really hoping this will work...but we will see! Here is a video(click on the word...I am hoping it will take you to the video) of my little Jake jumping off the diving board. He will be swimming without arm floaties before to long. He is so big and brave!!