looking for tips to go to pool with 1+yr olds...

hi all,

I am going shopping this weekend for the babies, the pool here in our community center will open soon, it's a medium size kids pool plus a separately gated infant pool.
I don't work and will probably go mostly early am, right after their breakfast, due to heat and also pool will be busier later with pre-schools, etc.

I will be mostly by myself so what can/should I bring? as long as I'm in the infant area with them, I guess it will be doable by myself, correct? do they have to wear floaties and swimvest even in that water? I am looking at spending time at the bigger pool on weekends when hubby is around too, so we can practice with them floating etc. without them having wings etc. on.

the hang out area, chairs, etc. are all around the bigger pool, but I figure I can just stay with kids in gated infant area as we won't stay that long anyway, and it's not that I can lay on the beach chair and get sun and sip a margharita, right

my dad will come in june for 3 weeks and help, but I don't know how able he'll be to hold one or run after, he's older and got some issues...I know he definetely can hold one in the water too. I was thinking about bringing something to put 2nd kid in while I work with the other one in larger pool, but what could that be?
mmmh, logistics, the pool is walking distance from our house so I need to bring it all with me and in stroller...when we are 2 adults, we can just bring a wagon too and load it, it's probably going to be too much work to get in the car with all and drive there....kinda silly...

any tips welcome, so far I am looking at getting:

- swim floats
- swimvest
- floats where they can sit in with shade over it (same them @ TRUS)
- reusable swim pants (for over diapers)

thanks!
alexa

 

The last time I took the boys to the pool they were about 11 months and not yet walking. I brought them in with the stroller. Before I loaded them in, I put a beach towel down at each seat and then they sat on that. When we got to the pool, I took them both out and sat in the baby pool with them. That was pretty much all I could do by myself. You may want to bring some water toys (boat/squirters/etc) and an outdoor blanket for them to sit on. When I took them out of the water, I just put them in the stroller (on the towel) and used a third towel to dry them both off. We walk to our pool so I just brought them home to get them back in a reg diaper and dressed. HTH!

 

We have a pool and we used floats to put them in (ours were about 6-7 months old at the time)...the floats were similar to this one:
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2316447
I think you have a great list for the pool, I think if you will not be using a float for them to sit in, I would still use either a swim vest or floaties in the infant pool. Good luck!

 

Lots of sunscreen! And I don't know how much hair yours have but most likely hats. Mine have to wear hats to keep the sun off their heads and faces.

 

I wasn't comfortable with mine alone in a pool like that when they were that age. Are your kids walking?

I will chime in and say that you should check with the pool and see what their regulations are about swim diapers. All of our local pools require a washable swim diaper and do not allow disposables. I just went ahead and bought suits from IPlay that have the washable swim diapers built into them.