Rinconada Pool

Went to Rinconada pool in Palo Alto with MTO moms today. I had heard so much about it before but shied away from swimming pools because I thought it was too much trouble. Now I look for any (but still easy) chance to take Tobey to a swimming pool!

The pool was great, ranging from 1-3 ft. deep, with one end being a gradual ramp into the water so even the babies can sit at the edge and splash around. And in fact, we did take Eli to sit in the 2 in. of water. Apparently, he wanted more!

"We?", you ask? Yes, "we", meaning me and June, our babysitter. I really wanted to take Tobey to this pool after seeing how much fun he had at Emi's birthday party in at Phuong's sister's neighborhood pool. But for as much as I try to do two kids myself, I did not want to risk not being able to pay attention to either kid while at a swimming pool. So while I was about to leave Eli at home with June, June said she could watch Eli AT the pool. Great idea! Funny thing was that June knows the other MTO moms because she does the nursery during MTO. But since she was on "my clock" that day, Tiffany joked that I made the other moms jealous -- we all wished we could have extra supervision when it comes to kids and swimming pools.

Thank goodness June came for us because while she was feeding Eli, he threw up his food. And after all was cleaned up and he splashed in the water, Tobey wandered off by himself and I was able to leave one kid for the other. One scary moment was that Jaden (< 2 years) was standing in the 1 ft. section and slipped and went under. Tanisha, who was right there on the edge, jumped right in but I was right there in the water and we fished him out quickly. Needless to say, he didn't want to go into the water the rest of the day. :-( All that even in a 1 ft. pool.

The only bummer part of the day was that I got the reddest sunburn I've ever gotten. I sunblocked all of us before we left, ensuring the 15 min. of "absorbing" time. But there's a part of my back I couldn't reach and I didn't think that it would get burned, much less that burned. I think I'll buy the Neutrogena sunblock mist so I can spray on my back when I'm by myself. Ouch.