Swim lessons and other musings on life with the toddler

So we'll start off with the musings tonight. There are many folks I know who are looking at bringing home toddlers- toddlers who need and want to be held. Here is what my wrists looked like today wrapped in Therma Care heat wraps for 8 hours. Carrying the toddler (his nickname when we are at odds) has likely exacerbated a condition in my wrists from when I was on crutches for 6 months in a non weight bearing cast- remind me to tell you all about that adventure one day. But, basically my wrists hurt to high heaven some days and nothing helps. Even these new wraps don't do the best job- but it is better than nothing. They really need the heating part to come around onto the side, not just stay on the top of the hand. Little Bug and my sister thought I had done something pretty spectacular to my hands based on their reactions. I would advise finding a way to carry your toddler that does not involve daily pressure on your wrists.
Tonight was the second swim night of the week. We meet up with another single mom and her toddler (also from Guatemala) and we have parent and child swim lessons. Little Bug and I arrive early so he gets play time in the water park. This is him entering the water- very cautiously as there were some bigger, unsupervised kids running back and forth.
testing the temperature of the water. I keep him in a tee shirt now because the water is usually cool enough that he turns the color of his shirt in 10 minutes if he does not have a tee shirt on. Tonight, they turned up the warm temperature and Little Bug got to play/swim for an hour before he started shivering.
There is the chute system that he loves.
I think he would stay at this spot for the entire night if I would let him

Yep- this is what every toddler needs to put them back on track
splashing Momma
Considering how to climb up in the chute system- he seriously tried it every time he got near the chutes and I was far enough away
Since Momma will not let me climb into the chutes, I will just swing from the chutes.
In swim class, he finally did the motions for "paddle, paddle, reach, reach", "kick, kick", "blow bubbles". he also climbed out of the pool on the side, hung on the side for 5 seconds and then "jumped" into the water (Momma's arms). The instructor said that next week, we could try him in the floating belt so that I could be in front of him and he would have to come to me, versus me holding him. He was so excited tonight. I am glad I did not give up on the swim lessons.

Next week, I will be taking a few days to switch my computer- so I will not be blogging. Hopefully I can get all my files moved from my old home computer to the new home computer in a couple of days, but it might take a little longer. I also have to travel for business. So combined, I don't think I will post anything after this Saturday 01Dec2007- until 08Dec2007. Hopefully the post on 01Dec2007 will hold you until I am back to blogging. I am considering changing the layout on the blog too- so the added time will allow me to get it set up the way I want.

Well, I am tired and the wrists are hurting. Love to you all,

Deb AKA Momma Bug