Okay, question: how many people here fear swimming in deep water? in the pool? in a lake? in the ocean?

It isn't fear as much as a sense of a deep wrongness....but I'm ok in a pool if I can't see the bottom, or just don't think about it. Actually, thinking about it is the worst.

I took swimming lessons when I was just under three and was fine until I figured out that I was swimming in water over my head. No one told me that! I went on strike and they couldn't get me back to swimming lessons without hysteria until I was 6 ish, though I'd happily go in a pool, and even in the deep end. I guess I felt betrayed or something.

Open water, it doesn't bother me, I have no idea why. Well, the ocean being too tall does, but that has nothing to do with the depth below the surface.

In a lake or a pool, I know I can get to land in any direction if I swim far enough.

Your lakes are not our lakes.

Oh, goodness, all that cute! I keep thinking "OK, that's the cutest picture ever", and then it's "no, wait, that is the cutest picture ever!".

And that goes to both CI and PMM. I'm just smiling in front of the screen.

who came from, well, nothing

I can't get past that. I was just at a friend's place on Tuesday. She had a root-canal and I came over to be with her baby while she was still dizzy and achey. And I kept looking at him (1 year old - he was born a day before Emeline) and reminding myself that this little human being, whole with a personality and everything, just didn't exist a year ago. He wasn't part of the world, and then he suddenly was, and already so complete. It's like a breaking of the conservation rules in the world: how can a person come from nothing, and be so much of a person?

I'm not phrasing this right.

[Edited to wave back at Spidra]

That is one amazingly beautiful kid, Plei.

Thanks! We're kind of in awe of her over here. She's pretty good natured, too, so we feel like we hit baby lotto.

We've been co-sleeping with Li'l Sphere since he was born and are trying to transition him to the crib now that the holiday travelling is over. We haven't yet made it all the way through a night.

Lillian's been sleeping in an Amby in our room since she was born, but when she figured out how to keep herself up, she started coming into the bed more and more frequently. Then she got her first cold last month and wouldn't sleep anywhere else. It would be less of a problem if our bed wasn't a full. We'll be upgrading to a queen this month, which should buy us some time before the eventual transition. My goal, such as it is, is for her to sleep solo by her birthday.

I’m fine swimming in pools. I get weirder about lakes and oceans. Lakes because I fear various animals and oceans because I have nearly been drowned numerous times by powerful undertows (and because of animals). Although I’m a native Californian who learned to swim very early and who grew up with a swimming pool in her back yard, nature is another thing entirely. When I was being held under by that enormous force of water, it was scary as hell. I knew there was nothing I could do but pray it’d let up soon.

I'm not phrasing this right.

I think you're phrasing it exactly right.

Okay, here's sort of where the discussion went (with my friends). I think swimming is very race related. Not playing in the pool, but swimming, actual swimming even in the deep end is more common with white people.

Pleats assume a small waist and a flat stomach.

I've always had a marked waist/hip differential, but I've never had a flat belly. Pleats are the enemy.

I think swimming is very race related. Not playing in the pool, but swimming, actual swimming even in the deep end is more common with white people.

Interesting. Being Jamaican, I can't really comment, because it's different there.

We'll be upgrading to a queen this month, which should buy us some time before the eventual transition.

We have a queen, but Li'l Sphere's become quite the little animated sleeper. He wakes us up constantly through the night and loves to turn perpendicular, which leaves us no room at all. It's nice when he wants to snuggle up to you, but not so good when he flails around and smacks me in the face at 3 am.