Waterbabies

Some of my most vivid memories as a child involve my mother and the quest for sun. I remember Mom laying out in the back yard with a towel over her face, and if you came too close, she would say "move back, you're blocking my sun." If mom wasn't soaking up rays in the back yard, she was trying to get some color at the pool. We spent hours in the pool as kids. Julie and I would jump off the high diving board at the Hackberry pool. Quite a feat for 8 year olds. Said high diving board combined with a one strapped swimsuit led to the great boob escape of my youth. After the "incident," Grandma sewed a purple ribbon on the other side my suit to prevent the type of exposure that Ryan seems to be attempting here. All that is to say, that my mother has been itching to get the boys in the pool. Years of ear infections and sunburns resulted in a marked distaste of all things pool by yours truly, but becoming a mother has changed so many things in my life that the discard of my pool aversion is minute in comparison with more important things like restroom privacy (you thought one kid trying to unroll the TP was annoying, you should try it with three).
Knowing my mother's love for all things pool, Bob and I decided that the best way to be prepared for triplets and the pool was by taking swimming lessons. I called AquaKids, and for $3 extra per lesson, I could get the boys private lessons without having to commit to a 13 week session and abuse the instructor by making him/her work with one of the kids (it was pretty challenging to find an extra person to accompany me for the five lessons that we took, finding two people for 13 weeks would have been impossible). The lessons were great for Bob and I. The kids love the water, and a pool is just a giant bathtub with a diaper on, so they really enjoyed it. It took Michael a bit to warm up to the idea, but by the end of our lessons he was loving jumping in the pool and kicking to the side. We learned valuable tools to keep the kids afloat in the pool long enough for them to be rescued if necessary, and this gave Bob and I definite peace of mind. All the boys can hold their breath for 5 seconds and are very comfortable with the "kick, kick, kick" and grabbing the side of the pool. Last Friday, the pool opened, and Grandma, Aunt Faith, and the 4 musketeers headed out to enjoy the water. (I wanted to get a shot of the boys to use on their birthday card as well as laying to rest all of my mother's hemming and hawing and naysaying about my willingness to pool with her.) Other than Michael, the kids had a great time at the pool, and by the time we left even Mikey was having a good time. Hopefully we'll go back soon.
Mommy's boys having fun in the sun - people watching, splashing, and soaking up the rays with their 70+ coated skin.
Grandma & Aunt Faith wrangle the boys as Mommy attempts to get the perfect picture for the boys' first birthday card. They definitely earned their keep returning the boys to the staging area. Grandma came up with the brilliant plan to position the boys near a water spout so as to reduce the amount of running necessary to keep the kids in one place.
Aunt Faith takes charge and shows the boys just how much fun the pool can be. It's a good thing we had one pair of hands per munchkin - the pool is treacherous territory.
Mommy's attempts to get a picture of James chillin' in the pool were foiled by his need to explore as much of the area as possible.

James contemplates the next quadrant for exploration.

Miserable Michael. Someone forgot how much fun swimming lessons were and decided to dislike the pool, the toddler water park part, and the afternoon in general.

Ryan likes getting wet & wonders, "is this deep enough to splash in?"

So much to see and do at the pool.

Where is all that mist coming from? We were just sitting here and it started getting wet.

Ah, a water spout kept their attention for a bit and made this birthday photo shoot a success.