Most of our fun has involved playing in water is some form or another so far. I think I already mentioned how the boys played in the water at the Memorial Day picnic in order to rinse all the sand off. That was only the first of many water adventures for this summer. The next one was playing in the sprinklers in the backyard. It's been so hot & humid out that the boys don't get to play outside much during the day without water at some point so sprinklers are our friend.
Alex is fearless when it comes to water of any kind. Ethan is older and more methodical in his actions - he requires more convincing. No problem, Mama can handle that. I went in to change clothes and came out, took both boys by the hand and we ran full force directly into the fountain. Oh yeah, that was fun; a little brisk maybe but a welcome relief from the heat. Alex had been checking the fountain out before but now that I'd gone through it once, that's the only way he wanted to do it after that. I'd go back to the porch and Alex would come over and grab my hand for another run. Ethan saw how much fun that was and despite how much he says he didn't like it, he kept coming back for more as well. It was great fun.
Alex checking out the fountain, while Ethan runs the other direction.
Just after we ran through the sprinkler Ethan took off but Alex held on to my hand to run around. I'm pretty sure he fell on his butt right after this was taken.
Mama decided Ethan wasn't getting wet enough, so I held him in the sprinklers - he's laughing, not crying, I promise.
Finally, we stopped running through the sprinkler long enough to slide down the now wet slide. It's MUCH faster that way.
Our next big water adventure was on the 3rd of July when Lexington had our big Independence Day festival. You are right, there isn't much water in Lexington. But knowing how hot it would be and how Alex doesn't handle heat all that well, we had plenty of water bottle along for the day. When both boys seemed to be about at the heat breaking point, I poured a little water over their heads. This was an insult to Ethan; Alex, however, decided it was the most fun game ever.
Here you can see Ethan is considering doing the same thing. Notice his shirt is much more dry than Alex's at this point. It soon got just as wet.
Our next big water adventure was on the 4th of July and this was BIG water fun. We went to my cousin Andy & Laura's house for a get together to see my Aunt Audrey who was in town. They had a huge inflatable pool with water slide in the backyard. The perfect way to make the boys eat? Show them the pool and tell them they have to eat first...maybe cruel but it worked. This day had 2 of the boys' favorite things - water (even though Ethan is skeptical, he still loves it) and other kids. Several hours of playing here and they were exhausted.
So we left the pool party exhausted but not too tired to go wait for some fireworks.
I just wish Ethan liked his brother more - you know? Alex just wants to sit and relax, but Ethan just wants to hug him. Love that kid!
And here's big brother make sure little brother doesn't miss anything.
This pretty much says it all - don't worry, he was awake for the big show.
Our latest water adventures have been at the area pools. We've tried a couple of them out and Alex is again proving he is fearless when it comes to water. Ethan wades in to about his belly button, beyond that he is not happy about and he'd actually prefer to stay within 3 feet of the side of the pool. Alex, on the other hand, walks till he's past his belly button and then plops down to sit going all the way under the water. We'll pull him immediately up and he's sputtering and laughing at the same time. Ethan freaks when his head is under the water but Alex may break him of that. A few times of seeing how happy Alex was going under water and Ethan was asking me, "Mama, can I go under water?" Me: "Sure, babe. Go ahead." Ethan then proceeds to stand stoically still and then bends rigidly at the waste and puts his face in the water and immediately jerks back upright. He smiles and says, "I did it!" and then does it again, a little less rigidly this time.
At the pool we went to last weekend, there was a very small kids slide that both boys could do without going all the way under the water. We'd still help Alex back up but Ethan was thrilled that he could do it all alone without going under water.
As you can see, after the first pool experience where Alex kept going under water, we got him a new bathsuit with the built in life jacket. This may seem like a good idea but not so much for this particular kid in this kiddie pool environment. It actually proved to be more difficult for him to get around and easier for him to get under water. When he would go under or more to the point, lose his footing so his feet came out from under him, he'd spin & spin at the top of the water so basically under water because he couldn't go down to get his feet back on the ground. Thankfully, I was standing right there close enough to grab him. What upset him most about that whole experience? That I moved him farther away from the slide to make sure he was ok - as soon as I let him go back to the slide, he calmed down. Fearless. This was on the slightly bigger slide in the slightly deeper part of the pool - 1.5-2 feet instead of just 1 foot. Ethan slid down once with me at the bottom to catch him and the next time he told me not to catch him and was so excited when he stopped himself from going all the way under all by himself. "I did it all by mesef, Mom! I did it!" So excited.
So that's it so far. What's next for us? We've got another pool we've heard about that we want to try out this weekend if the weather permits. All this fun in the sun time is getting us ready for the biggest water adventure of all...Myrtle Beach at the end of August. We can't wait! Since that will be the end of our summer, this really is only the middle and we're just getting started. I promise to give you more updates before we make it all the way to the end.
