On Saturday I took Tyler to the pool for the first time this season.  Prior tries had been a disaster, with Tyler being either too cold or too scared to go in or let go of me.  But now at three-and-a-half, I figured if he didn’t start enjoying the pool experience there was some kind of issue going on.  My husband didn’t even want to go because he couldn’t bear to see Tyler cry.

It was hard for me to go alone but I was determined to take him.  I had gotten him a fish “floaty” and as luck would have it, a slightly younger boy had the same one so I think that gave Tyler some courage. We have been having a bit of a heatwave and the pool was as warm as an outdoor pool could get, too.

It took him a long time to get in.  I’m one of those who prefers to just jump right in but Tyler enjoys the step-by-step torture method.  I wasn’t going to force him to do anything so we went in gradually.  He kept looking at the boy with his fishy floaty and his mom having a good time, and finally he let me put it on him and get him in the water, and finally he stopped clinging to me like a monkey and held his arms over the floaty and let his legs dangle free.  Then I was able to take him for rides and bounce him around.  I was able to do almost everything that the other mom was doing except throw him up in the air.  I needed for him to be weightless in the pool so that I wouldn’t hurt myself.

It was one of those times where I felt like almost a normal mom.  I said, “I’m having one of the best times I’ve ever had with you, Tyler.”  “Me, too, Mommy.”

After almost an hour and a half in the pool we ate lunch and then he was just like a normal kid where you couldn’t get him to leave the pool except by threats of never coming back.  But I knew I had had all I could handle and wasn’t ready for another round.  I told him we could come again every weekend in the summer if he wanted and he said, “Really?”

I didn’t bring a camera, anticipating the worst, but it was definitely one of those times where I wish I had.  It will forever be in my memory though, the first good pool day I had with my son.