Swiming with Kids.

We took the kids swimming in the "City" the other day and we had a blast. The best time yet swimming with the kids. They have a water slide at the pool and Papa took the boys down a few times and before I knew it both boys were going down completely by themselves!! Way to go boys!! They both had life jackets on which was good because the water is quite over both their heads. Papa would go first with E and wait for the boys at the bottom. Boy did I ever wish I had my camera. E and Papa have the same grin and it's so great to see them having so much fun. L would come SHOOTING down next BEAMING and after he bobbed up Papa would give him a little push to the right side of the pool. We found out that L can swim but only on his back doing a back stroke... it's very hard to do at the bottom the water slide. Then J would come FLYING down and go completely under water before coming up and dogie paddling to the edge of the pool. They were both so excited!! The lifeguard even told J "And you didn't want to go by yourself!!" because I guess Papa had to talk pretty hard to get him to try it. As soon as J did it so did L. Then I'd take R down which she loved!! I don't think she'd ever gone before (they all had life jackets on) and she loved it. She didn't stiffen up once. The 3rd time she giggled and yelled at the bottom. Other times we've gone Papa and I take turns taking one child at a time down the slide while the other adult watches the other three. The pool will not allow more then one child at a time with a adult down the slide even though Papa did it several times and it was great. This way we can all go and it's a LOT more fun. Then E, R and I headed to the kiddie pool to watch the boys. Papa took J and L to the DIVING board. While we were swimming with A&M and kids awhile ago L got a chance to jump off a diving board into my arms. It was really shallow water and he loved it. J did not. At the pool Papa jumped off first and then both the boys jumped off the board into the water in front of him. It helped that there was a little boy smaller then L that was also jumping off to his Papa. L LOVED this and just grinned like crazy. J not so much. I told J he had to try it three times and if he still didn't like it he could stop. He didn't like it and quite. L I think could have kept going except there was a boat in the kiddie pool he really wanted to play with. The third time they jumped off L got up on the board before Papa could so Papa just told him to jump. L walked out to the edge. Looks down. Bounces. Stops. Looks at Papa. Papa leans over to talk to him. L shakes his head. Papa laughed and jumped in the water. Then and only then would L jump off. So much trust!!