Beau Phelps

"One...two..."
"three"
"What in the world? Let's do it again."

Before my father passed away he sent me an email that was a video of infants swimming their little hearts out under water. I'm guessing that he sent it because he thought we should start teaching Beau early...perhaps he felt that we'd let Beau accidentally drown in a puddle. One of these days he'll probably let me know I was wrong and he that he was just forwarding the email to forward.

Beau absolutely loves the water. Bath time is his favorite time of day unless a certain 'Lil Bocephus get slippery and tries to jump out of mommy's arms to get his whale causing a little bitty "incident". Additionally his Grandpa Carter loves to stay out on the boat all summer (that is until Beau's Aunt Baylee broke her elbow by falling through a sliding door) and his Grandma Debbie lives in Panama City, where we now have to swim at one of the resort pools due to the craptastic oil spill...thank you British Petroleum! Now that I think about it, how odd is it that THIS is the summer I decide he must be comfortable in the water?!? Anyway, once you look at all of our "normal" summer activities you see why I decided Beau needed to begin to learn to swim.

I went straight to the internet and googled "infants, swimming, lessons, blah, blah, blah". Beau eventually got doctor clearance so we were set for Beau to become the next Olympic gold medalist in the (insert his strong swimming point here). Like a good parent I had very high expectations for my six month old.

I found an indoor, heated, saltwater pool with swim instructors who work with infants. I patted myself on the back. We had to go for an evaluation. Yep, Beau had to take a test at six months that had nothing to do with weight, height, or whether he could pass an object as small as a raisin from one hand to the other. By the way, why would I intentionally give Beau an object as small as a raisin to play around with? That would be another doctor visit and blog in which I have to tell the world just how dumb the idea was...jeez. When they asked about the raisin thing I said, "Yes" and we moved on. Sorry, back to swimming-I was told the evaluation was to make sure he didn't freak out and try to drown the instructor as he attempted to exit the pool. He did great...I mean, there was a moment of him looking around like "What are you people about to do to me now?", but that ended as soon as he realized it was nothing more than a huge bathtub.

"What are you two going to do to me now?"

We showed up two weeks later with Beau looking very dapper in his new swim trunks that Aunt Amy and Uncle Darren gave him for Easter. He was ready, set, go for swim-completely excited. Slight problem...Chattahoochie Scuba wasn't. In the typical Manderson family style things did not go as planned ie. paperwork lost, no schedule, Beau getting cranky, mommy getting crankier, daddy wishing he were anywhere but there...you get the picture.

"Look how excited the parents are and how worried the six month old is."

Finally Ear Infection Annie took Beau's lesson (fitting-right?). She was really good with him even though she felt horrible. They changed our lessons to a different time so that we would have Carlos for the remainder of the lessons. I was all, "Fine, fine...let's get this show on the road" until I realized that the new swim time was right around nap time...boo, seriously, boo!

The following day Beau was in a good mood and was ready to show Carlos what he could do. We learned "kick, kick, kick", "splash Beau splash", "blow bubbles Beau". We had to repeat out loud everything we wanted Beau to do about a thousand times then cheer/clap-Beau loves lots of positive reinforcment. If you didn't cheer he thought whatever it was that he just did was awful and he would start to cloud up. The constant repetition of events led to doing the same thing at home ie. "jump Beau jump", "poo Beau poo...yay, clap, clap, clap", etc. This seems very normal until you are out in public.

So here's what Beau can do in the pool: float, roll over, glide from parent to parent , kick, splash, "jump" in the pool, and finally he will go completely underwater on a count of three. It's amazing that he automatically knew to hold his breath for most things.

"three already, three..."

"Hey, are y'all just dunking me in a huge bottle of Little Noses now? I swear I'll stop fighting the booger sucker...jeez."

Now about Aunt Baylee's little crush on Carlos... She thinks he looks like Taylor Lautner. I didn't realize she had a crush until I gave her the camera to take pictures (apparently I trust her A LOT to give her the holy grail of cameras what with having a cast on her arm and walking around a slippery pool). Every picture she took of Beau just so happened to include Carlos. We have pics of Carlos holding Beau and posing for Baylee, Carlos gliding Beau through the pool, Carlos getting Beau to "kick, kick, kick", etc. There are a couple of Evan and myself with Beau taken by each other...but at least we'll never forget Carlos.

So was it worth it since he will have to do this all over again next year? Yes, if for no other reason than my baby was completely excited and happy for an hour a day. At least now I feel a little more comfortable when he get around water. If only I could just manage to count to three before he goes under...

"Watch mommy!"

"Dear DHR, We are NOT drowning the child. Please read the entire post and save yourself the call. Thanks."

"Hah, that was easy-peasy!"

"I wasn't ready Carlos, I wasn't ready."

"Please, please catch me."

"Whew...mommy got me."

"Floating is relaxing..."

"...until mommy sees if I can do it myself."

"Kick,kick,kick"

"Hey Carlos, I heard you...kick, kick, kick...let go already. I've got this!"

Gutter Child of Calcutta

Conversation in car post-Beau meltdown that lasted about twenty minutes:

Me (sweating profusely): "Don't you just love how we plan and plan and plan every little thing so the trip goes smoothly, then...WHAM...Beau decides today is the day to be ill and there go all those fabulous plans and we end up looking like complete idiot parents flying by the seat of our pants?"

Evan (after a few thoughtful moments): "So...does that make him God?"

Me (dumbfounded): "Whaaa?"

Evan: "You know humans make all the plans but really we're all supposed to be following God's plan."

Me (peering at sleeping Beau): "Hmmm. Nah..."

Welcome to THE SUMMER OF BEAU- 2010!
This is the summer in which we intended to get him out of daycare and completely well within a week and then travel, travel, travel. Bahahahahaha! But seriously folks, God has a plan for Beau's ear infections and colds and in time he will reveal it.

Apparently it was not for Beau to get well within a week and travel, travel, travel because here we are well into June and Beau's ear infections are still hanging out. Add to that the fact that he began teething and you having the makings for a child-star of a horror film (read: The Omen or Exorcist). We sat Beau down and told him that the ear infections are not his friends and that if those were the friends he chose to hang out with then we were going to start choosing his friends. He laughed at us.

So you may be wondering, "What were Beau's plans?" As far as we can tell eating was pretty high up on his agenda. He's eating solid-ish stage 1 foods and he loves 'em! So far he has loved everything at first taste except peaches (funny- considering that he was born in Georgia).

Beau apparently looked at the milestone calendar this month and decided to knock out three in as many days before his 6 month birthday. Evan and I realized at that very moment that our son was a procrastinator just like us...we hung our heads in shame. In a way we were proud at least he got in there and got the job done on time. He rolled over from tummy to back, sat up on his own, and sprouted a tooth.

Interesting story on how he sat up on his own the first time. Remember the horror of Easter pictures? Well, I decided you can't keep a good Manderson down and signed us up again...at Olan Mills...at one slung up in KMart...because I had a coupon. Here was the deal $9.99 for a huge package of one pose. So I decided that it would be neat to have pics of Evan and Beau taken for Father's Day. They dressed in their Florida State best and off we went. This time I was smart enough to get the first appointment on a holiday. Beau had eaten and napped so we were good. He took such awesome pictures...even when the photographer laid him on his tummy! Then she asked, "Can he sit up?" We replied, "Not yet." but she sat him up anyway and just as I was racing to catch him he just grinned at the camera like he'd been doing it his whole life...for like 10 seconds then toppled over. Evan and I just stared at him and each other like, "Did he just do that?".



Beau has been experiencing plenty of growing pains this summer and to ease his pain (and our own) we do whatever makes the child feel better. That has included things that I swore I would never let MY CHILD do (I was so uppity). For instance, he's so hot natured and it is so hot that I started buying him sleeveless tops, when that didn't cut it, I just let him run around in his diaper like a gutter child in Calcutta (this I swore I would never do). I have also tossed the socks, but I do still try to keep sandals on him (when he's dressed).



Add to his pains a diaper rash from antibiotics and you have the makings for some real entertainment because that's when mommy and daddy say to heck with the diaper, throw down old towels, and make Beau's day...it's NEKKED TIME! The child loves nothing more than his thirty minutes twice a day of rolling around on the floor in his birthday suit. He just laughs and giggles and talks up a storm. He only gets upset if he sees you go near a diaper. You see, Evan and I know what we've set ourselves up for...embarrassment, that's what. Evenings, or days, of Beau running into the middle of company naked as the day he was born laughing and giggling the whole time or undressing in public- whichever is more humiliating at the time. That's OK though we'll get him back with bubbles...they scare the bejeezus out of him! So much for all of the fun times Baby Center promised us.

For the time being we'll just let our child run around (roll around) in his altogether having the best time of his life...so far.