First swim

Liam went swimming for the first time last week. Here he is with Daddy cruising the pool. Although we acted like it was a major developmental milestone equivalent to walking and talking, he was pretty ambivalent about the whole thing.

Liam's first swim

We were at the University Club which is a private club for faculty and staff at SGU. Visiting professors and guests stay in the hotel there and they have a restaurant, pool and beach as well.

On Thursdays significant others and students are allowed to swim for free. So Thursday is a big day around here - also known as Pool Day. Here's a picture of the pool. If you have to swim for the first time, you might as well go here. The view is not bad.

University Club swimming pool overlooking Prickly Bay

Team Winckler before the inaugural plunge

Even better than swimming, a big nap

We had a funny experience at this pool when Liam was just a few weeks old. We were sitting under an umbrella but it was still pretty hot, and I decided to let Liam hang out in his diaper. Just about that time the waitress came by our table to see if we needed anything. When she saw me taking Liam's onesie off she audibly gasped in shock as if I was the one stripping down to my underwear.

She commented in a horrified voice that she couldn't believe we were undressing him. We didn't really know how to respond to that. I mean, the kid was sweating. We're at the pool. Last time I checked naked babies aren't an offensive site. To the contrary - they are cute. Or at least they are where we come from.

Then we really shocked her when the pacifier fell on the ground and C.J. picked it up, popped it in his own mouth for a quick rinse and stuck it back in Liam's mouth. That one blew her mind and she came back to our table in a few minutes with a cup of boiling water so we could clean the pacifier properly.

[O.k. that could have been a disturbing act in any culture, I'll give her that. After rinsing off the pacifier 98 times in the first week, we realized there are worse things than a little dirt.]

So, from what we can tell people here have different customs for dressing and taking care of their babies. And they are not afraid to let you know.

Even though it is blazing hot on the island, Grenadians dress their infants in layers of clothes.

When we go to the pediatrician little babies are wearing socks and stocking caps and wrapped in blankets. Since we think Liam gets hot just like us, he is always wearing just a onesie. We can practically feel the scorn from the other parents as our baby's bare legs and arms brazenly hang in the wind.

One day we went to the market downtown and C.J. was carrying Liam. C.J. got several comments from people on how to better hold the baby and how, again, the baby needed more clothes - socks, a hat, something. Ironically, a few of these comments came from some Rasta guys sitting around smoking pot on a Friday afternoon. Not exactly what you'd expect for models in parenting.

A few limited exchanges with Grenadians does not make me an expert on their approach to child rearing, but these are our observations. And lots of the attention we get is positive - people smiling and saying hi to Liam. However they express it, Grenadians do love the little babies.