Our own private swimming pool...

...this was another clear advantage of getting down to the coast a little early during our holiday...we had around **8** hours in the pool (all told) without ever even seeing another person (divided into roughly hour and a half long chunks)!  :)

Marine Policing Unit...

Spotted this in "the Wharf" the other day, which did sort of prompt me to wonder if a "Marine Policing Unit" wouldn't be better off if their chosen mode of transport could actually float (images of crestfallen Police officers standing with their heads in their hands as crooks slowly vanish into the distance rowing a small dingy popping involuntarily into my head) -

- but when I got a look at the side of the vehicle it seemed to make a bit more sense, it was actually the "Underwater and confined space search team" (which sounds like just about my worst possible nightmare of a job) -

- I spotted them a bit futher up West India Quay (shivering), several members of support staff manning (what I presume to be) the oxygen supply machinery, the rest looking on -

- so probably a training exercise, either that or Lord Sugar dropped his helicopter keys... ;)

...and yes, I know he doesn't really work in Canary Wharf, he just likes to pretend he does (while sitting in a business park in St. Albans... ;)

Very Important - Drowning doesn't look like drowning

Really have to share this...apparently when most people start to drown they go into a state known as the "Instinctive Drowning Response", and I quote "It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening"...

Drowning people cannot call out...
Drowning people cannot wave...
Drowning people cannot grab rescue equipment...
Drowning people frequently look like someone bobbing happily on the surface...

Do yourself (and your kids - if you have any) a favour and read the full article here...

Baby Swimming - Term 2

So, despite a few unscheduled breaks (caused variously by either severe weather or nasty bugs), we are now well and truly into term 2 of the baby swimming classes we decided were a good idea after a rather scary experience on Honeymoon...so what can Thomas now do/cope with in the water at the age of seven months after a term (and-almost-a-half) of lessons?

Well, not *swim* obviously (Tomorrows world didn't do us any favours with their opening credits), babies can go underwater primarily because of the mammalian diving reflex, which is a totally involuntary system that slows the heart rate and seals air into the lungs (thus optimising respiration) triggered by water hitting the face...so the first thing he is *slowly* learning is to be perfectly calm when that happens and not fight it or panic - term one got us almost there, but this sort of conditioning takes time...

- going underwater is *fine*, even if no-one is holding on to you (although some weeks we do get some fussing for a few seconds when he's reunited with the air) -

- falling into water is okay (that one is just a game now - accompanied by a well known nursery rhyme)-

- but, if possible, climbing in yourself is preferable and actually most impressively (although slightly disturbing to watch as it's almost learning by aversion therapy in execution) is that one can save oneself from drowning by holding on to the edge of the pool-

- he got the hang of that one *rather* quickly (as you can see by his expression) -

- lastly, when in the water the general idea is to kick with the legs and reach and pull with the arms (various toys are involved in making that happen)

- but a bit of random splashing the rest of the time is fine...(and Thomas does a *lot* of splashing) -

- and (perhaps) most importantly is that being in the pool is lots and lots of *fun*... ;)

Baby Swimming Class

So one of the things that we thought was terribly important to give to Baby Thomas was that he should (as soon as possible) be comfortable in the water (as far as we could facilitate it), and (when he is ready himself) that he be happy to learn to swim - so - with great thanks to my folks (who paid for it as his early Christmas present), back at the end of November (at around four months old) we started him on his baby swimming classes...

The reason we decided this would be a good idea was simply because, on our honeymoon in Mexico, on about our second day lazing by the impossibly vast and (almost) private pools (thanks to cunningly travelling just outside US college break and UK half-term, saving ourselves a *packet*), we were both shocked into flying from our sunbeds to try and rescue a small girl who had apparently just gleefully fled her folks and flung herself to certain death from the side of the pool (as her parents sauntered a hundred feet behind, chatting to each other and quite unconcerned)...as I staggered to the edge of the pool I saw the little one giggling and clinging onto the edge, kicking her feet and smiling, her parents approached calmly slinging towels onto sunbeds, cooing to her as to how clever she was and then lowering themselves into the water next to her...their subsequent explanation as to how she came to have this level of skill (to answer our gaping mouths), when children two-three years older are frequently reported in tragic circumstances having been found floating face down in the next door neighbours 6 inch deep fish pond - ended in a vow to make *sure* any child of ours had similar lessons...

Although, I have to say, it's a little harrowing to actually see (and not much better even the third or fourth time you are witness) when your little boy is plunged (by either tutor, spouse or your own hand) beneath the water to come up gasping for air... <:S
The rest of the secrets of the class I am bound by contract to keep silent about, but when I read in the paper a few weeks ago about a kid who fell into a swollen river as his frantic family looked on, and proceeded to just calmly swim to the edge as he had been taught to do from the age of two weeks old, you know it couldn't possibly make any more sense...