One fish; One lounge lizard

We joined a couple we're friends with and their 3 boys at the Altoona Aquatics Center this afternoon. The aquatics center was really nice. There was plenty of room for little ones to play. The pool was a zero entry pool (it gradually gets deeper), so it was great to be able to give Nicholas some freedom in the pool to walk around and splash on his own. Let's just say Nicholas LOVED the pool and didn't want to get out. Every time we'd take him back to our chairs, he would immediately turn around and head straight back to the water. After a few times down the very cool pirate ship slide, he was going up and down by himself. Before long, the slide was overrun with bigger kids who passed Nick on the steps. I was afraid they would knock him off the steps, so I found other places in the pool to play. He was very comfortable walking in the pool until the water was about chin high. It was then that he would reach for one of us. He practiced kicking with both of us. Nicholas even put his face in the water several times. Tony and I had a great time getting to do something different with Nicholas. He is so much fun to be around. It's even more clear in these times that he is growing up so fast. We don't get to spend one on one time with him as much as we would like. We're going to have to come up with some fun things to do just mommy, daddy, and Nicholas. By the time we left the pool, Nicholas was a very tired boy. A couple of minutes down the interstate and it was night, night Nicholas.

Hayden was the exact opposite. I don't think it was as much the water as it was that he was in a loud, unfamiliar place. If one little drop of water was splashed on him, he cried instantly. I tried to at least put a toe in the pool, but couldn't even accomplish that. I felt so bad for him, he rarely cries. We headed back to the very nice pool lounge chairs that were under the umbrella, so Hayden could hang out there. He looked right at home in his pool chair sucking on his paci. Eventually, he did take a nice long nap. A nap outside by the pool on a beautiful Sunday afternoon sounds like a pretty good day to me! Tony and I took turns hanging out with Hayden and playing with Nicholas. I wasn't expecting Hayden to take to the water like Nicholas did, but I was hoping that we could at least sit in the water together and splash. Maybe next time...