Can I have a pair of gills for Christmas? I'm a swimming maniac!

As faithful readers of the blog will remember, papa and I took swimming lessons together in the winter at the Fredericton YMCA. And truth be told, I am a much better swimmer than papa. So when the mercury was soaring north of 30 degrees this weekend, I thought I'd reward papa with a swim in grand-papa's pool. I also wanted to show everyone how great a swimmer I was, while at the same time I understood that I couldn't shine too much. Papa has a very fragile ego.

Although it was quite hot outside, grand-papa's pool was nice and cool. Grand-papa's pool is much different than the one at the Y. The other one is big, cold and in a huge echo-filled room. Grand-papa's is round and near lots of people who can watch your every move. I like his much better. On Saturday, the pool was at the perfect temperature, probably about 76 degrees. Any warmer and it feels like my bath and the last thing I want to think about is a bath when it is so nice outside. Papa and I swam around in circles, jumped up and down and flipped around on our stomachs and backs. Blowing bubbles in the water, however, has to be one of my favourite things to do. Has it become an Olympic sport yet? It must only be time, let's face it, ballroom dancing is now in the Olympics.

All Saturday afternoon, more people kept arriving. Grand-maman had invited everyone on the face of the planet over to visit. Ok, it was only her side of the family, but it felt like the entire world was coming over to see me. I met family members that I never knew I had, and of course, I had to try and be the centre of attention at every possible moment. When the water started to get cold, I remembered a good trick on how to keep warm, keep close to papa and let him get cold. It works like a charm every time.

Most of Saturday afternoon, poor Belle had to stay by the pool in the fenced-in area because there were so many people milling about with food at doggie-head level. But it was funny to watch her run around the edge of the pool trying to jump in and swim with me. She was able to get her head dunked a few times, but papa kept backing her up. He seems to think that grand-papa would not be very happy if one of her paws scratched the pool lining. I kept telling him that if he let me explain the situation to grand-papa it would be fine. Alas, he won. Let’s just say that was one of the very few victories maman and I let him have on the weekend, she and I make such a great team together.