Wednesday, June 17th, day 162

Aren't they beautiful!

Luca and a couple girls enjoying the warmth of the day and a little rest on the lawn.

It was so warm, and he loves to be as naked as possible!  This is just after the first round of swimming . . . I thought he was going to nap but he had a little snack and was ready for round two!

After all that swimming, he crashed big time!  I couldn't have woken him if I tried!  (Which I didn't of course!!!)

Luca had his first swimming lesson today!  It was a huge success!  A friend is house sitting in a house that has a pool and a hot tub so a group of 6 moms and babies (and 2 dads that could get out of work) hired a swimming teacher to coach us through the motions of getting a little ones in the water.  I feel so lucky to be involved in this!  

The pool was very cold.  It was about 70 degrees (olympic pool temperature is 89 degrees and most pools are at around 82 degrees) - which is chilly for adults but even more difficult for babies.  Luca and one other baby toughed it out for about 15 minutes but the other babies would have nothing of it!  Luca was also the only baby wearing just a swimming diaper, everyone was better prepared to block the sun with a full body wetsuit.  I was a little concerned he might get a little burn but we weren't out there too long.  Luca is by far the fattest of the crew and I'm sure all that blubber helped to insulate him a bit!  He also floats really well!

After the outdoor pool, we migrated to the indoor hottub which was a wonderful 100 degrees.  A couple degrees warmer than our body temperature and perfect for babies.  A lot of them fell asleep in the hot tub!  Of course there wasn't as much room to move around but we seemed to manage just fine.

In the video you can see me practicing some of the activities the instructor taught us.  Pulling him forward on his tummy which is a very natural thing to do.  I also held him by his head and back so he could float him on his back.  He loved this (which is unusual for babies apparently!).  We also did some submersions - putting his face underwater!!!  It was kinda scary at first but babies are pretty good at getting water out if they accidentally breath it in.  I did the first one of these outdoors in the pool and Luca took a bit a water.  I was told to blow raspberries at him to help teach him how to expel water when takes it in.  Basically you just blow on his face and dunk him in!  He was really a trooper about it all and never complained for more than a couple minutes if he really didn't like something.  He had the most water time of all the babies (once in the pool and twice in the hot tub).  If it weren't for eating and sleeping, I'm pretty sure he would stay in that hot tub all the time!  Even when he was exhausted, he didn't do his usual sleepy whine, he just kept on trucking!

This video is a little long but I included almost all the footage I have.  Thanks to all the moms and dads that picked up my camera to help capture this for me!

Playing with his dad!

Luca after eating some rice cereal!!!

Catching his feet and sucking on his toes is his favourite came right now!

The rest of the week wasn't nearly as exciting as today!  He's starting to get the hang of the jolly jumper but is in general, pretty conservative when it comes to exercising!   I am always noticing improvements in his co-ordination.  Mostly I am impressed by how much I love him!  We are having such a good time together.

In this video you can see some jolly jumper time and some of the sounds he likes to make.  Also, he loves to play with his dad and laugh hysterically - except when the camera's on!