Pianos and Pools

This Saturday, the Molloy family took a small jaunt out to the suburbs to visit friends, Christine and James, and the visit resulted in two new and exciting firsts for our little one. First up was Ellie's first experience with a real instrument. Sure, she rhythmically shakes the heck out of her egg shakers and tambourine, and bangs on an old coffee can like she was Ringo Starr, but that is nothing compared to the joy she had playing on a real piano. James demonstrated how to push down the keys, and then we plopped her onto the stool and she went at it, banging away like a pro with a huge goofy grin on her face the whole time. Ok, so there wasn't any semblance of a melody or song, but she had such a great time, we may have to start saving up for a piano! We are pretty sure that she is going to be musical, as she always dancing and singing and everyone at day care comments that Elise enjoys music class more than any of the other kids.

After music hour, we headed over to the community pool where Ellie had her first "cold water" experience. (As a side note, you wouldn't believe the horrible time I had trying to find a one piece bathing suit for our 11 month old. Practically every infant bathing suit at every store was a bikini. Maybe I have turned into a prude in my old age, but seriously how is it a good idea to put an infant in a bikini? Particularly for my baby who is just about as pale as they come, and should probably be in a full body suit out in the sun. Anyway, I did eventually find an adorable bathing suit at Children's Place.)

Ellie's first pool trip came with mixed reviews. She did not particularly like the cold water (her only experience to date was warm baths) so she spent the beginning of the trip crying every time we put her feet in the water. It took a while, but she eventually got used to the it and enjoyed walking around in the (Very shallow) baby pool. However, she was still completely uninterested in sitting in the water or swimming. I took her into the adult pool for a little while, swimming around with her, but again, I think that she was cold and didn't really like it. Despite Ellie's distaste for the cold water, she was a trooper and we are proud of her adventurous spirit. We hope that she will acclimate to the cold water thing soon, because we have a lot of beach and pool trips planned in the coming weeks, and it's going to be a long summer for mom and dad if she hates the water!