Several years ago, I wrote about a novel use for an inflatable wading pool in the middle of winter – transform it into a pillow pool. When Reina was three, she and her friends spent hours jumping off the bed into the pillows, transforming it into a fort, and just having a laugh. However, as Reina got older, the pool lost its luster and stayed in storage.
Now that our boys are over 19 months old, I’ve renewed the life of the pool, and worn out my arm inflating it with a hand pump, so that Reina can teach her little brothers the joys of jumping into a pool filled with pillows. Since they are frequently trapped at home on high pollution days, this gives Bryson and Ryder one more way to burn off some energy while working on their face-planting skills without getting hurt. As they are still learning to swing themselves out of the pool without falling to the floor, we lined the exterior with cushions from the sofa so that there is a soft place to fall when they roll off the edge of the pool. Even though Reina is now 7, she can still jump off of the sofa into the pillows without causing any damage to the pool itself. Perhaps it is time I took a dip as well.
Photos courtesy of Christopher Lay
