Baby swim

Today was a big day for Oscar! Tooth number four finally broke through (following tooth number three yesterday). And he and I went to his first baby swim class. It is half an hour in the deep and very warm water of the special pool for disabled people in a swimming pool not too far away. There are about a dozen babies all about the same age. Oscar was BY FAR the splashiest!

He LOVES splashing in the water. In fact, even here at home he starts waving his arm in a splashing motion every time we enter the bathroom with him. And he loves his bath so much, he gets very upset and cries if we leave the bathroom without actually giving him a bath.

So first there was a beginning song with all the babies and parents in a circle (only two dads, and apparently they both needed supervision by the moms - hm). Oscar was splashing and giggling so much, he swallowed a whole bunch of water, was sputtering already, and got me completely drenched, too! Then we did some games (jumping the babies through the pool like kangaroos). Finally came the part where we're supposed to get them used to the water so they can learn to dive: you say "one, two, three" and then you pour water from a cup over their head. Then you praise the baby. I think in the third week or so we actually start dunking them before pulling them back out of the water. There were some babies there who had done a class before and were already pros at diving with their eyes, nose and mouth closed. At least they didn't sputter and gasp like Oscar did.

Well, Oscar had lots of fun. He loved splashing the most, but he also held onto the side of the pool by himself (I let go briefly, because the teacher said Oscar was holding on very well and also pushing his legs into the pool wall to support his weight). Afterwards, Oscar was all tired out and asleep in the carrier even before we got to the U-Bahn.


Recently, I took the kids to the closed Tempelhof airport which is now a public park in Berlin. Here's Clara riding her walky-bike on the runway: