My parents won’t have their house for much longer, so I’ve made my list of things I want to at the house before it’s sold. I really wanted James to have his first swim in their pool, just like his sisters did before him. It might be silly, but these kinds of things matter to me. Annabel and James obviously won’t have any memories of Madeline, but when it’s appropriate I’d like them to all have similar experiences to tie the three of them together.

Madeline's first swim
Madeline’s first swimsuit

Annie's first swim
Annabel’s first swimsuit

too cool to swim
James’ first swimsuit

Madeline and Annabel both loved their first experiences in the pool:

Maddie loves swimming

she loves swimming

James…well, he’s only three months old. His sisters were seven months old and five months old when they first swam. And to be fair, he didn’t hate it. There was no screaming or crying. But he was skeptical.

Jamesie swims

Jamesie swims

It helped a lot that his favorite person in the world was in the pool, too.

Jamesie swims
He only has eyes for Annie.

swim fam

I want my kids to be strong swimmers because we live in California, where pools, the ocean, and water sports are everywhere. Annabel is a strong swimmer after eight weeks of lessons this summer (I signed her up for an additional two weeks at the last-minute), but she also loves swimming. I have a feeling that even though James seemed a bit lukewarm on swimming yesterday, he’ll eventually love it just like his sisters.

Lovin' Daddy's kisses

us.

swim fam

I hope when James and Annabel are older, they’ll look at these pictures and see something they had in common with each other and their sister, in a place that meant so much to their mother.