Labor Day Pool Party

Close Up.

On Saturday, Shannon had to go out of town, but Ted and I took Adam over to Lisa and Mike's house to swim in the pool and have a barbecue. Adam is getting very good at being comfortable in the water. He'll go to anyone, he'll swing his feet out behind him to float on his belly, and he will stick his face in the water. He's getting close to understanding the concept of "kicking" also... but mostly he just loves the socializing, the snacks, being outside, and splashing.

Someone put me in the pool!

Aunt Robin!

 

Quick story about the duck in the background: We bought that for him almost exactly one year ago. Then it was too big... now he can't really fit comfortably.

Grape fiend. Adam ate literally one million grapes on Saturday. Literally. He threw the strawberries in the pool though. He thinks strawberries are gross.

Holding onto Aunt Robin's unopened beer for her.

With Sarah - he's making his surprised face.

Trying to get his new girlfriend's attention.

Having a snack.

Seriously. One million grapes.

With Aunt Robin again.

Adam's interest in other kids is so sweet... there were some older kids at the party (4-5 year olds -- too old for him to be able to play with, even though he tried REALLY hard, but they were not old enough to really be able to be careful with him). His light and spark amazes me every day. I feel like he literally glows. It broke my heart that he wanted to play so badly, could keep up with them, and was able to understand that they were playing "spy" and were hiding out... but after he got run over a few times because they would turn corners running, I had to distract him. And playing with mom isn't nearly as exciting as playing games with other kids. I half expect him to be upset with other kids show up and take away some of the attention... but he does the opposite. He loves a crowd.

Ted left around dinner time but Adam and I stayed for burgers and mac and cheese - although Adam was too excited to eat. Then we stayed the night at Mike and Lisa's, and for the first time ever, I had to lay down with Adam to help him sleep because he can crawl out of the pack and play now... so he slept in the bed with me. While I was trying to get him to sleep, he rolled around and kicked me and couldn't sit still (he's not exactly snuggly anyway, and this is just the way it is for him). As I thought he was starting to drift off, I stood up by the bed and hoped he wouldn't cry. He was okay. I got on the floor, in the dark, and groped around for my cell phone, which he had thrown off the bed as he was trying to get comfortable. As I was searching on the floor, I heard him sit up in bed and peeked up to see him looking around the room. He didn't cry, I breathed quietly, hoping he wouldn't cry, hoping he wouldn't see me, and hoping he wouldn't hop down onto my head... I imagined the terror that I would cause if I popped up my head from under the bed to "comfort" him. When I was little I had terrible visions of trolls living under my bed and I didn't even have an experience like that to actually cause me to fear that.

So there I was, pressed against the floor in the dark with my phone... stuck with no where to go, no way out. But fortunately, he surveyed the room, decided he was tired, and laid his head back down and went promptly to sleep. Whew.

The next morning he was up at 6 and sat near my head as I tried to sneak in some extra sleep. We got up, packed the car, and were out of the house by 7:40. Parties with toddlers are very different from pool parties without, but I wouldn't trade the fun he has for anything.