Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Puddle Jumper.


(Look! I put a random stock photo of a child that is not mine on my blog!)

Our house came with a circular above-ground pool. It wasn't anything I was necessarily wanting, but my husband, ohhhhh my husband, he saw it and fell in love. As long as he was cool with the maintenance, then I was cool with using it! :)

Having the pool has turned out to be an amazingly wonderful thing. The kids and I can swim during the day and every night after dinner, we all go for a family swim. It's kind of like being on vacation every night. So fun! Now, the random stock photo image above is to give a shameless plug for these amazing floaties known as Puddle Jumpers. These awesome floaties have revolutionized the swimming experience for our little man. Our little Cub has always been a bit of a fish, firstly with a little inflatable boat before he was a year old, then with holding on and swimming around with us last summer, and now these things. When the hot weather arrived, I first bought Cub a pair of arm floaties. He didn't like them one bit and was afraid of going underwater. Some friends of ours had a Puddle Jumper for their daughter, so I went to our local Wally World to get one for Cub (I found it in the life jacket section, but I do not think it technically qualifies as one ... at least we wouldn't use it as one on the boat!).

Oh my.

Within a few minutes, he was swimming by himself around the pool. The floaties are made of the same material as a life jacket (not inflatable, but foam) and the section across the front gives them extra support to stay above the water. Oh my goodness, it has been so amazing to see Cub flourish and swim on his own when he wears his Puddle Jumper. He also feels safer about going underwater and will jump in by himself. How fun!

Sadly, I don't have any really great pictures of him wearing his Puddle Jumper, so the stock photo will have to do. But trust me, the smile is the same!

Have a lovely day, friends!

4 comments:

  1. I just got these for my kids this weekend. They are still too scared to let go and swim on their own but they are amazing!

    Having a pool in the backyard would be conflicting for me. I'm so terrified of my kids jumping in when turn my back for that one second and something happening. But I totally agree it would feel like you're on vacation every day. My kids are waterbugs too. We just drive on over the beach at Lake Michigan which is only a mile from us. Hopefully it warms up soon b/c that water is COLD. :-)

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  2. Very cool! My in-laws moved to a new development with a swimming pool last year, so when we move back to OKC in a year I know we'll be doing LOTS of swimming over there...I'll have to remember to grab one of these since Riggs will then be the perfect age to use it! Thanks for sharing! (And I'm with Cub...I still remember hating those arm floaties as a kid!)

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  3. Oh Heather, I had the same worries!! Our pool has a deck built next to it and since it is above-ground, we simply removed the stairs leading up to it. Now the only way to get in the pool is to either climb over the side of it (which I can't even do) or hoist yourself onto the deck and scramble up (by the time the kids are able to do that, they will definitely be old enough to swim on their own!!). Our home insurance guy saw what we did and said it was even better than having a fence around the pool. Harder on us, but obviously way way way worth it!!

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  4. i hear ya about the vacation feeling! that's what we did most night sof the week last summer after dinner - LOVED it and plan on it again starting this week! our pool is a few houses down the street though :) And we got lincoln one of those life jackets last summer and he didn't like it one bit. our pool has a wade-in section and is built for kids so he never really wore anything, but i might get it out againa nd try it this summer hearing how much Cub likes it! maybe it will work better!

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