September 8, 2001 - Saturday
It's been a while since Harry played in the pool in the backyard, but today it was hot enough for us to fill it up again. I wasn't going to get in with him at first - we were having guests over for dinner and I was getting the final things ready - but Harry kept calling to me and one of us, his mother or I, had to stay close. So, once I was finished with everything I ran upstairs for a bathing suit and played in the pool with Harry. What I noticed was that in the month and a half since Harry first used the pool he has gotten a lot more comfortable with the water. That likely has a lot to do with the fact that his mother has been giving Harry baths in the bathroom tub, having stopped using the plastic infant tub inside it, and that has given Harry more freedom to move around in the water. In the pool, that manifested itself in Harry rolling about more. And where that might have put him under the water a month ago, today Harry knowingly protruding his arms and elbows behind him to keep his head above water. I'm not sure that Harry was any more comfortable in the water than before, because he was plenty happy originally. But, unlike those first dips in the pool, I didn't get the sense that Harry was a wrong move away from real trouble as he was then.

The flip side is that Harry took a few more chances in the water, experimenting with the limits of his environment. The most disturbing of which was his trying to blow bubbles and, ultimately, seemingly breathing in, not out. I'm not sure Harry was ever in any real danger from this silly act, but his breathing seemed halted for a moment enough to start my mind working through the things to do if Harry indeed had water in his lungs. In fact, I did actually start to bend him over the side of the pool, face downward in hopes of letting gravity help move the water in the right direction, but Harry resisted. Instead, I showed him about coughing, which he thankfully seemed to think was a fun little game, and I think that took care of any residual water he hadn't discharged already. While disconcerting, I guess these are good lessons for him to learn sooner rather than later.

Once the guests arrived - Tom, Rich, and Amy - Harry made quite a show of looking around the table and identifying everyone by name, several times. It was typical toddler.


Comments, opinions?