Dibble Dabble

I'm not the best summer mom. I take my children to the pool, but not often enough and not always with enthusiasm.

Yet we had a fabulous afternoon at the pool yesterday! I taught the kids how to play "Dibble Dabble", a game from my long ago childhood. It requires deep water, which is not always available. When the lifeguards closed the diving boards for a while, I grabbed Daniel, Joe, two boys they had just met, and Marianna. Here's how to play:

1. "It" puts a Popsicle/craft stick between his toes, jumps to the bottom, and releases the stick.
2. "It" surfaces and gets out of the way as quickly as possible.
3. Everyone else is standing on the side, searching the water.
4. Whoever sees the stick (down in the water or on the surface) jumps in, grabs it, and shouts, "Dibble Dabble!" Now she is "It."

Simple, eh? Eventually there were almost 10 kids playing.
There's not much else to know:

1. No jumping until "It" is out of the way.
2. No jumping in unless you see the stick.
3. Everyone who sees the stick is welcome to jump in and try to grab it.
4. "It" is allowed to jump for the stick, too, which is an incentive to get out of the water quickly.
5. No pushing people in! That's obvious, but when it happened yesterday, I made the perpetrator sit out a round.

Yes, I played, too. It is so much fun, and being bigger and older is neither an advantage or disadvantage. I couldn't play long because a certain five-year-old needed my time in the 3' section.

Speaking of Becca, she forgot to bring her life jacket to the pool yesterday, and I purposely didn't remind her. Although it made her feel more comfortable in the water, the vest was starting to hold back her progress.

Yesterday she started really swimming! There's a lot more to work on--right now she's at the energetic-just-past-dog-paddle stage. She'll make a big leap forward when she's truly comfortable putting her face in the water (we're working on it).

So we all had fun. We stayed through four swim sessions, twice as long as I had planned. I can't go today because David has a medical checkup, but I'm eager for another great pool day soon.