Ronan Lives Up To His Name

Friday

Ronan tottered into our bedroom early this morning, waking Mark because he wanted to go downstairs to the spa pool and swim again...lol. We've created a monster! Sherry cooked us porridge (with plenty of sultanas and brown sugar) for brekkie, then left for her nail appointment (with a side of coffee and gossip) with Robyn, then took those infernal bulky slides back to the toy library. We finally have our living room back! It took Mark a good 15 minutes of trial and error to wrestle them into the car last night, and Sherry even had trouble figuring how to get them out once she got to the library.

Down at the pool, Ro still favored the spas, only briefly entering the main pool. After much coaxing, he did finally touch bottom in the big pool while hanging onto the railing, but the water still covers his mouth and nose, so he refused to try to swim in it. Sherry brought Subway home for a quick lunch before we all headed off to Baywave for Ro's swimming lessons. The instructor and a couple of the other moms were duly amazed at Ro's progress overnight. He was so taken with the new underwater world he'd discovered, he had trouble paying attention to the teacher!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronan

Ro spent pretty much all day in or under the water

When trying to swim freestyle on the surface, Ro has trouble bringing his legs up and keeps standing up after a few paddles. He actually does a lot better when swimming underwater, such as when retrieving objects off the bottom of the pool or swimming beneath our legs, when he instinctively switches to the breaststroke Mark showed him. Thus, it's understandable why he won't swim in deep water; when he runs out of breath, he hasn't figured out a way to keep himself on top of the water other than standing up. So, we still have to keep a pretty close eye on him, but he's pretty good about avoiding the deeper water.

Still doesn't like being on his back. Note the death grip on the teacher's wrist

After lessons, we paid to stay at Baywave for the rest of the afternoon. The giant wave pool was a big hit with Ro (and all the other kids), who was pretty tentative at first. But, by the end of the day he was in the corner where the waves peak the highest, hanging onto the railing for dear life as the breakers shifted him and the kids around him down the rail a foot or two with each wave.

Our little beached seal

Sweet as!

The gigantic spa pool was thankfully only for people 16 years and older, and Sherry and Mark took a couple turns in it peacefully soaking our aches and pains away. Geez, how old are we getting? Not too old for the hydroslide at least. The big green monster of a slide intimidated Ro at first, who rode down with Mark the first time. The pitch-black tunnel over the first half of it actually even freaked Sherry out a little bit the first time. Ro had a blast and wanted to ride down the second time with Mark as well; a gentle shove on Mark's part ensured he rode down solo, which he wanted to do every time after that - at least until he discovered the novelty of riding down backwards with Sherry. He didn't even balk at going headfirst when Mark suggested it, despite the massive faceful of water you get at the bottom. Fortunately, the line for the slide moved quickly, and we could always watch the college (i.e. high school) water polo matches going on below to pass the time.

Ro and Sherry trying to keep their footing in the breakers

Although we all had loads of fun, after several hours we were DONE, and we could tell Ro was getting tired. Even so, talking him out of the big heated wave pool was no easy task. He promptly fell asleep on the couch after his bath while Sherry prepared dinner, completely tuckered out.