The Adventures. . . . Everyone In the Pool!

Everyone’s already in the pool and there’s a tremendous racket going on, lots of squealing and laughing and the slap happy sounds of pool fun bouncing off the walls making a huge, blue echo. They’re all splashing and kicking while the mommies are holding and propelling them along and doing these kind of upsy-daisy actions, the water  brimming with a bunch of really, really small people who mainly wear the “T” size in footies and even smaller in sleepers.

But somehow Nootchie- who has traded her NooNoo identity here for a more playful, adventurous and slightly hardier name as befits the activity- has managed to get past the gate even though she is not actually a toddler yet nor can she sit up all by herself; and now she’s in the water, getting soaked all over with the best of them and appearing to be sort of kicking, though not entirely because it’s actually more like a small, quiet, fluttering underwater step as the friendly waves carry her along and tickle her tiny feet.

Her ruffled and polka dotted bathing suit bottom- she’s forgotten the top today- bounces up and down as she does what she always does best: looking! Looking all around! She looks here and there and everywhere, at the instructor who playfully and gently jabs her foot-  this obviously part of some karmic footsie destiny- at the mommy-baby couples swirling all around her, at her mommy and the aqua water and noisy spray and bubbles and the little crowd, and she’s thinking and thinking and thinking. . . that maybe this just could be okay.

It definitely does in fact seem okay in, at least minimally okay, definitely tolerable and maybe even more than that, though she’s not entirely sure what to make of it. I could get into this-like totally- is what she possibly would say if she could say if she was old enough to have real words. For now though she says it in the usual way, with her eyes. As she’s hoisted into the air again and feels herself slowly and gracefully being swished from side to side she accepts and gives into it all with a kind of curious yet calm infant dignity. What’s going on here? Hmmm, perplexing, yes, but interesting nonetheless. . . .

Nootchie has decided simply to go with it and be in the moment. This is not rocket science. She’s got absolutely nothing to lose and can figure it all out another day. Plenty of time for all that! For now it’s more upsy daisy and wheeeee-  let come what may!