Here in Kauai, we have gone swimming once a day at minimum and often twice a day with Everett, and we’ve definitely noticed a big difference over these three weeks in his comfort in the water. When we arrived, he was afraid of stepping in the sand. No more. Surf was problematic, and still a little big, because the waves are quite big here this time of the year. But the pools are great, if not a little cold at the new resort. But his Chase chest floatie along with his two water wings has helped a lot. He now steps off the ledges in the pools and floats around. He’s still too scared to jump in from the deck.
He kicks and sometimes wades with his arms. In the quieter still pools or hot tubs, he makes slow but definite directional progress… as long as the current or jets are not on too strong. He has no qualms going down the slides, even though he still holds his hand up to his mouth just before we enter the water at the bottom. Shannon had managed to get him to dunk under water back at Waipouli Beach Resort, but we haven’t repeated that because every time we do something that is exciting, Everett’s mouth goes wide open reflexively, so I can’t see how water would not go straight in leading to coughing and sputtering. He is slowly trying some back and front floats with his floaties, but his face doesn’t go in the water yet and he is still tepid about blowing bubbles in the water.
His favorite pool is still the hot tub. While Sierra is perfectly content being held by mommy in the colder big pool just observing us because she is so chubby with insulation, Everett is skinny like me and you can see his teeth chattering just after going down the slide twice. He loved the “Bean toss” between Edwin and I, and wanted to do that again and again despite being cold.
Here’s a video of his progress on the water slides. The first is some nudging that Edwin had to do to convince / push Everett to go down the small slide. Then he gets brave enough to do the big slide, as well as a FOV of the “Bean Toss.”
Everett has this habit of opening his mouth wide open when he is surprised. Here at the bottom of the slide, he’s trying to cover it with his hand.
I’ve got some photos of Sierra. This is often how she looks when not held.
She is a little more content when held… just a little…
