Savouring the Summer Daze

Ahhh, how I remember endless summer days basking in hot sunshine lounging on huge beach towels with my girlfriends, all of us in bright bikinis surrounded by boys showing off, playing beach volleyball, the smell of hormones, french fries and coconut tanning oil.  Gossiping and reading trashy magazines between flirtatiously frolicking on the beach and dozing with our bikini top straps undone and tucked under our armpits to ensure no tan lines.  These days were always followed by many a Corona at the beach bar...ending with a late afternoon nap awaking skin feeling tight but coloured brown with a hint of pink from too much sun but ready to hit the local patio for more good times (and to show off our newly bronzed skin).

Those were the good ol' days.

I've traded all that 20 something year old bliss with kiddie pools, a rainbow array of freezies making my boys hands and bare tummies sticky and colourful but their mouths happy and their bellies cool.  I sit and eat my salad next to my bare naked 3 year old munching away on watermelon the juice running down his arms and dripping on his toes.  The sun beats down and the smell of his sunscreen surrounds me as my dog pants beside me like she's run a million miles, preferring to be outside with family where it's a thousand degrees than inside where it's beautifully cool but too quiet as my baby boy naps.

She meanders over to the boy's new pool just big enough to fit their little bodies and *slurp, slurp, slurp*...quenches her thirst for a moment.  She returns to my side laying her head upon my lap under the table continuing to huff away.

Adrian jumps back into his new pool, splashing, kicking and (yikes) nonchalantly laying right down in the water that would take my breath away if I did the same.  He asks me to come in with him and so I cautiously step in, my feet instantly numb and stand beside him.

He stands up and puts his wet arms around my waist, laying his cheek against my stomach and says "Mummy, you should get naked too!"

Ah, no son.  I ruffle his wet curls and say, "Honey, it's okay for you to be naked but not Mummy...trust me, no one wants to see that."

He looks up his big blue eyes quizzical but for once doesn't question me.

I'm not sure if I should be offended.

Hmph.

So, since having children I've exchanged the good ol' summer days for .... something very different.

I'll get those days back again.

Someday.

Sort-of.

When I'm too old to wear bikinis and frolicking will be more like a mere shuffle.  I'll have traded Corona for White Zinfandel and instead of In Touch I'll be reading Chatelaine, my wrinkly, sun spotted skin slathered in SPF 100 wearing a straw hat as big as a satellite with a massive beach umbrella stuck in the sand beside me as I rest on a beach chair instead of lying seductively on a beach towel.

But by then I'll be feeling nostalgic remembering the good ol' days when my boys were little babes, recalling their bare bums running through sprinklers and splashing in their kiddie pool.  Missing their sweet, sticky kisses and sweaty sun scented skin.  Damp ringlets hanging in their beautiful blue eyes and curling at their napes.

I'll be wistful, watching other families splashing about in the water, digging huge holes, building sand castles, playing beach sports.

Reminiscing, reliving, recollecting.

Oh, how I know those days will come.

Much, much too quickly.

So today, I choose to cherish...these never ending summer days.

Though they may not always be perfect, days, at times, seeming to go on and on...

The years are short...

...and the summers even shorter.

Fin wanting no part of the cold water spraying him...

There once was a little boy who was terrified of water....

He is no more!

Mmmmm, freezies on a hot summer's day after a long nap.
Is there anything better?
Well, maybe a Corona (for Mummy that is.)