Swimming Pool in the Living Room

Being the parent of a toddler is great fun. You get to be silly nearly all of the time, and you can blame it on your 1 1/2 year old. You can do silly things like jump on the bed (thanks to Grandpa and Grandma H for staring that tradition), run, stomp, and dance around the house while squealing and making cat noises, make funny animal noises, sing silly songs with made up lyrics, watch silly children's tv shows (I've learned some good Spanish by watching Sesame Street in the past several months), put on any music with a beat and dance yourself silly, take the clean underpants out of the clothes dryer and wear them on your head (Zoe started this one when she was helping me do laundry one day), and set up the inflatable toddler size swimming pool in your living room.

It all started when Zoe was in the garage with me one day and spied her pool. We had not managed to deflate it for storage, so there it was, leaning on one side against the wall in its full glory and size. Zoe squealed when she spotted it, and began shrieking "Wa wa! Wa wa!" I tend to let Zoe do whatever her little heart desires at this stage as long as she is not hurting herself or anyone else. So, with that in mind, I pulled the pool down to the floor and helped my bursting daughter climb into it. What ensued was a crazy stomping dance mixed with shrieks of "Wa wa! Nap! Wa wa! Nap! Nuggle! Nap! Nuggle!" and then a rolling around, lying on her stomach and wiggling and squirming sort of manuever. This went on for several minutes. It really was not at all warm in the garage, and that explains why we've had the inflatable swimming pool in the middle of the living room for the past several days.

For some reason, Zoe likes to lie down in it and act like she's napping in between shrieks of "Nap!" and "Nuggle!" Other times she just likes to drag her toys into it and play, and still other times she demands "Down!" which I've figured out means to turn it upside down over a pile of oversized pillows to create a simulated "toddler mountain" which she loves to climb up and then squirm back down.

Life has become quite silly and unpredictable around our house. As long as we keep our sense of humor, it's usually a good time.