Buoyant bums!

Jeff and I love taking the kids swimming. We often took the kids to the Sportsplex back home and we enjoy taking the kids to the Waves Leisure Centre here in Melbourne. I would like to think that Jeff and I are intelligent people, but early on a weekend morning, when it comes to swimming we seem incapable of learning from our mistakes. We have had a number of occasions where we have arrived at the “toddler pool” with all 3 kids in tow (no strollers to speak of) only to find that the pool is closed – for a swim meet, for lessons or other mysterious reasons. If the pool isn’t closed, I regularly forget to pack new diapers, bathing suits, towels, etc… Last week when we arrived, the toddler pool was closed (due to fouling), the wave pool was closed (reason unknown), and that left us with a small section of the main lap pool where we could swim around holding 1-2 kids in pretty cool water. Not so much fun. We learned from last week and called ahead, then checked in before unloading the kids. Everything looked good. I was very confident as we entered the family changeroom. Then it dawned on me - this week’s swimming challenge – I forgot to pack swim diapers. So we did the best we could…we kept their regular diapers on and put their bathing suits over them. This worked of course until the diapers absorbed so much water that they were busting at the seams and stretching their swimmers out of shape – I wish I had taken pictures of their poor bums – on the plus side, their bums were sooooo buoyant that they could easily glide along on flutterboards without assistance. Eventually, I felt so bad for each of them that I braved it and took their diapers off one at a time. They enjoyed the swim but even the chlorine was not enough to get rid of the Grumpies and Wyatt the Tyrant went down for an early nap…and that brings us to now…fingers crossed.