fish, fish, swim, fish............

Well, we have ourselves a little boy who is obsessed with water. From the time he was little, he has loved to take rocks and drop them into water. he loves the sound, loves the splash, just loves the whole thing. One of his favorite things to do has been to go out on my dad's boat. And with that means swimming. This is a whole mixed bag for my family, seeing as how Rob is not a huge fan of the water. (I should say was, he is pretty great in it now with our two little fish children.)

Like probably all moms, I am super nervous about my kids in the water, and especially Joel. You tell him not to get in the water yet and he does not even hear you. He went through a phase where he would just run and jump into a pool, and then a phase where he was afraid to get in the water at all. But now he feels pretty confident in the water, and it has absolutely nothing to do with me. It's because of my dad and my sister, really. My sister has a pool where we spent at least every other day last summer walking him around in the pool, swimming with him. Because we had that available, he got to go really often and just loved it. And whenever my dad is around Joel, there is one thing on the agenda-- swimming. Without my dad and sister working with him, we would never have this:

My son is holding his breath and going underwater! I want him to succeed but I am too hover-y and he does better when my dad pushes him. If it were up to me, I'd just carry him around the pool all day because he's scared! He's my baby! The last time my parents visited, my dad taught him how to "monkey-walk" around the pool with his arms. This had positives and negatives, as he quickly figured out how to climb out of the pool and run into the hot tub before Grandpa could catch him. Still, I am so encouraged to see him working on something he so obviously loves to do.

The water fixation doesn't end with swimming though. The boy knows "Finding Nemo" by heart and always has his Nemo fish and Daddy Nemo fish and turtle with him as he watches the movies. I see him doing things like making the fish swim, and the turtle talk to the fish, and I think "He really does get this. He just can't get the words out!". In fact, yesterday Joel stole my phone to play with his beloved "Finding Nemo: My puzzle book" app. When I had the sound turned off, that didn't stop him, he just tried to read the story to himself. Granted, it was some gibberish  but then you'd hear "Nemo... boat.... Marlin... daddy....Sydney Harbor......Dory......Turtle....Shark".  

Our last development in fish is rather boring, but fascinating for Joel. He has taken to watching (and loving) fish nature documentaries. His current favorite is the Blue Planet series from National Geographic. Rob and I have found ourselves alternately fascinated and bored out of our minds as we watch the tidal migration patterns of salmon or the growing variations of coral. (And in one case, I ended up sobbing my eyes out during a documentary about a turtle who almost gets killed about a million times. I kept yelling "No little turtle, no!")

So, that's our current fascination. Pretty much every day when he wakes up he says "Swim, fish, swim, fish?"It's rather fun to be let in a little to his world.