Mira's first trip to the lake.

We took Mira to the lake for the first time.  My grandparents have a vacation home on Lake Travis and we went to see them when they were last there.  We were going to take her to the swimming pool up there, but it was closed for repairs.  So we went down to the lake instead.  The place we swam from had a nice sandy beach with a gradual slope.  Not rocky at all.  At first she wasn't so sure about swimming.  (She'd never been in any body of water larger than a bathtub.)  After a while in the water I got out with her and nursed her sitting on the shore.  After that, she really perked up to the whole experience.  She started splashing and playing.  It was really great to see how much she enjoys the water.  Brian was showing her how to blow bubbles.  Every time his head would go under the water her eyes would get really big and both her hands would come up to excitedly smack the water or the top of Brian's head.  It was totally cute.  

 

Only bad thing:  I was terrified that she would get a sunburn, so I slathered her with sunscreen.  I used Coppertone Water Babies on Mira and myself.  I got a little in my eye and it totally burned my eye.  I think some got into her eyes too because her eyes were all watery and she was trying to rub at them, which only made it worse because of the sunscreen on her hands and she got a little fussy about the whole thing.  At least there were no sunburns to speak of.  I don't think I'll ever use that kind of sunscreen on her again, though, due to the eye stinging.  I checked some online mommies' forums and the general concensus seemed to be that Banana Boat Baby Sunblock was the way to go for tear-free protection.  So I got some of that at Target today.  I have yet to test it out...

The swim diapers I had were too big.  I got the smallest size, but even the smallest size is intended for babies 16-25 pounds.  Mira is only 14 pounds.  So I put on her one piece bathing suit instead of her two piece in the hopes that the suit would help hold the diaper on.  That seemed to work ok.  I guess Huggies thinks that babies under 16 pounds are not supposed to swim???  And then here's the thing with these swim diapers: there's no side tabs to adjust how tight the diaper is.  They're like pull-ups.  Luckily, Mira didn't have a poopy while we were swimming, but if she had there would have been a huge mess as we tried to get the diaper off because the diaper ended up completely inside out once I got it off of her.  How are you supposed to work those things anyway?  Not too well designed, Huggies.  Send that one back to the drawing board, I say.  For over a dollar per diaper, you expect quality.  (Normal disposable diapers are less than a quarter each.)  

Anyway, overall a super fun experience worth repeating.  Now I need to get my pool tag so that we can spend afternoons in our neighborhood pool.