little swimmers

There are various schools of thought on when to teach your kid to swim. Some people start them right away at only a month or so old, others wait until they are toddlers and start with swim school. In Beijing, we just simply don't have any options to take Niamh to, so the princess hasn't done any swimming. I've read that kids who don't start early are afraid of water. Being from Florida, this is almost as bad as being albino in the sunshine state - I want my daughter to be a little water baby, not scared of swimming!

Our apartment complex's pool doesn't even have a shallow end, much less a baby pool, so our options are limited. So last weekend we filled up the baby pool at the country house so that John (Ray and Helen's son) and Niamh could take a little dip. John, who has been swimming, was working himself up to get in the pool, which was a little cool. Our baby, however, jumped right in and then had to be held back by dad as she lunged forward toward the water.

Apparently, she's got a little bit of Florida in her! We're heading to Florida next week and are going swimming with her on Sunday at the club, I don't think we'll have any problem getting her in the baby pool...