Olivia always enjoyed bath time, swimming at the pool, and playing at the beach.

There were times recently when she would declare “no bath” in the evening. However, that objection was soon overturned when we discussed all the activities in order (go to potty, take a bath, put lotion on, put jammies on, brush hair, have a snack, read a book or watch a movie) for the evening and then she became interested and no longer resisted. In fact, she would repeat all the steps and even add or one or two of her own if we missed one (for example, brush teeth or drink of water).

Olivia's first time at the YMCA pool was Saturday, April 14, 2001. Olivia was 7 months old and it was the day before her christening. It was a Parent and Child class, once a week on Saturdays for 8 weeks. The very first day of class, she was so comfortable in her daddy’s arms that she fell asleep.

 

After the 8-week session, we, as well as Olivia, were sold on the swim lessons.

At that point, Olivia acquired her membership to the YMCA. Even though they did not have an infant or toddler membership, we went ahead and obtained the youth membership for our big girl. She has been a card carrying member of the YMCA since June 2001. We continued the lessons through April 2002, until Olivia fractured her leg (another story, different page). Once her leg was healed, Olivia continued swimming weekly, but, no longer took lessons. Daddy became her instructor and they had even more fun together than in a class.

In May 2002, we went to the Cayman Islands for 10 days of fun in the sun and boy, did Olivia have the time of her life.

 After the first few minutes on the beach she was already in training to be a beach bunny or sand castle maker.

We took Olivia to the shores of Lake Erie during July 2002, but that wasn’t the same as the shore of the Caymans.

We decided to stick with the pool and wait until we went to the ocean again for her to really enjoy the shore.

Olivia looked forward to swimming weekly with her daddy. Not only did she know she was going swimming because her bag was packed, but she knew the route to the pool. She saw all the tell tale street signs, trees, houses, that we would pass. Couldn’t pull the wool over here eyes, if you tried.

The YMCA - Hillcrest Branch Aquatics Director and staff were always so gracious in meeting our family needs, we sponsored a Raffle for 4 tickets to the sold-out Jimmy Buffett concert at Blossom Music Center on July 1, 2004 to benefit the Aquatics Program.  We were able to raise $1,090.