Parenting fail and our new favorite past time

I come from a town with multiple community pools. There is almost no need to have your own when you have so many to choose from. I'm not much of a swimmer but when its 90+ outside I'd rather be wading in the pool than anything else. I don't know how they did it but the Central Valley has managed to only offer community pools at the gym, which are indoors and used mostly for lap swim, or limited hours at the local high school - neither are my idea of fun.

One of my stipulations looking for a rental this year was it had to have a pool. I refused to suffer through another summer without one (especially being super pregnant.) We got lucky and found the perfect house complete with a nice pool and backyard for entertaining (because I'm totally going to want to do that with a new baby :p). 

Prior to our family vacation to Myrtle Beach, Jake never really liked to swim - let alone take a bath. We got lucky and our condo had an amazing pool area for kids fit with a lazy river, water fountains and mini pools. Ryan even got Jake to go in the ocean and jump around with the waves. 

first time at the pool - 6 months

second time swimming - 2 1/2 years. Notice the clinginess?

3 years old and ready to tackle the ocean! 

It took a few weeks to get the pool clean and working - due to poor landscaping we have multiple gigantic pine trees that shed constantly leaving the pool a mess and cooler than usual - but now we are in full swimming mode. The first few times we hung out by the pool we just put our feet in or stayed near the stairs. Since we had no intention of submerging ourselves we went out fully clothed. It wasn't long before Jake would get soaking wet from splashing around. My immediate thought was for him to strip and run around naked. This was a huge mistake because now he is under the impression that swimming should only be done in the nude. 

This the only appropriate picture I can put up...for now. We are getting there. Michael Phleps better look out!

We've also been potty training for the last 6 months. Its come to the point where anything we do is prefaced with "do you need to go potty first?" One day as we were getting ready to put our feet in the pool I told Jake he needed to go to the bathroom first. His response was "I don't need to." When I jokingly suggested that he could go on the palm tree in the backyard he whipped it out and began peeing before I could even finish my sentence. Hey, he may look like Ryan but he's got my instincts. 

So this summer you can find us swimming in the pool-wrestling Jake into a swim suit-and peeing in the backyard (its better than in the pool, right?) It just goes to show that one tiny decision can produce major consequences.