Safety

So everyone knows we have a swimming pool that we love! When we moved in to this house it had an above ground pool with a really nice deck around it. Cute little stairs going up to it and all. What it didn't have was a gate to keep kids out. They had one but never installed it. I guess since they had older kids they didn't find it necessary. So the first thing we did was install the gate. We had older kids but a baby on they way so we were thinking ahead. Time went by and we are always careful about making sure it is latched at all times.
Later when Nick was about 6 mths old I decided I HAD to have a pond. We put so much work into it got it all running and looking great and after several days of working hard we stepped back to admire our hard work and I thought OMG what did we do this for? We have a baby! So I always made sure he wasn't near it and the kids I keep didn't get near it.

Lots of time has passed and as the kids have gotten older we pulled out the pond for a smaller one. One that was not so deep. We also never leave the kids unattended ever. We take lots of steps to make sure we have no accidents. I have since then started getting very worried because Ashlynn loves our turtle in the pond and so do the other kids. Nick never really cared to much for it. So Terry decided to have a custom fence and gate made to go across our patio so we can look but not fall in. This helps so much. I don't leave the kids out alone BUT it only takes a second. I could NEVER live with myself if we had a drowning or anything close.




Problem solved right?
Wrong!
My mind in constantly worrying about stuff (since my dad's "accident" at work that cost his life) I will think of every single way something can go wrong. So I decided to step in the kitchen and watch what Ashlynn does.
I have to say since Nick was about 8 weeks old he has been swimming and we have always taught him to wear a life vest or you do not step on the deck. She didn't care for the pool last year at all so we didn't really work on it to much. As I stood there in the window I watched Ashlynn walk up the stairs and try for about 15 minutes to unlatch one of two latches. She did it! OMG I am now freaking out. If she can do that one she can do the other. I will say again I never leave them out alone BUT my little mind thinks ok if one of them gets hurt or something that causes me to run in anything can happen in seconds. So here I go again to find a better latch.

This last picture is Ashlynn looking into the pool. She didn't just walk up to the gate for no reason at all either. I threw a toy in from the other side because I knew it would get her attention and she would try to get to it. My goal was to have her concentrate on something she wanted really bad to see if she could get to it.