Beach Bumming: BEST DAY EVERRRR!

As we made small talk about how the summer is sadly coming to an end and how quickly it went by, I almost didn't quite catch the remark he made to me about, "Well, it goes by even quicker when you're working."  Because surely, SURELY he didn't actually know exactly what he was saying to me, a Stay at Home Mother (who is actually rarely at home).  Surely, he was not implying that all it takes to raise 2 boys is throwing food at them like pet dogs and then slogging my way back to resume my spot on the couch watching talk shows and consuming bonbons.

I paused, I did a quick breath intake with a sarcastic remark on the tip of my tongue that never actually made it out because, thankfully one of my son's barged up to me and asked me to help him with something which of-course made me have to get up off of my lazy stay at home Mother's ass in order to assist.

Don't worry.  This is not going to turn into an indignant, ranty post.  I'm done with my spurt of anger.  Because quite honestly, I'm pretty sure he didn't really mean what he said.  I'm sure it just came out the wrong way.  I'll give him the benefit of the doubt because I don't know him. And if he did mean exactly those words, well, that's fine.  I know what's what.  I know that my choice to stay home was the best choice for me and for my family and that's all that matters.  Granted there are the days when I become screechy, naggy, annoying and every 6 months or so verge on the teetering edge of psychotic and then I do wonder if my choice really was the best thing for all of us. But in my heart, my mind and my gut I know.  Besides I certainly wasn't going to have this person that I didn't know well at all taint the amazing day I had at the beach with my boys for the first time on my own.  No I was not.

Today didn't seem like 'work' at all except for all the bags and blankets and towels and toys and life jackets I had to lug down to the beach.  On my own.  Apparently life jackets that weigh all of .000002 lbs are farrrrr too heavy for a 3 and a 5 year old to carry.  Upon choosing the perfect spot right in front of the water's edge I plunked my butt down on the not so soft, but moreso a mix between gravel and pebbles kind of sand and began to dig holes, make sand castles, build dams and then watch my sons' play together like I haven't seen them play together in a very long time.  It was practically effortless.  We ate snacks on the quilt with them wrapped up and snuggled next to me.  We swam and played volley ball with a beach ball.   And at the risk of sounding as cheesy as one ever could, we even sang Ring around the Rosy in the water about a dozen times with them daring me to go under the water at "We all fall down!"  We were practically the poster family for a Coppertone commercial. In fact I'm sure the other people there watching us (because apparently I'm narcissistic enough to think that other people probably were) believed me to be the type of Mother who never raised her voice at her children, was super fun, always played with my kids whenever they asked and actually didn't care that she had about a million pebbles imprinted on her backside.

Today I was the type of Mother I wished I always was and for that, today was the best day of my whole entire summer.  So far.

I will never forget it.

I just hope my sons' always remember it that way too.

This was the best pic I got of the 3 of us.  One stuffing his face with a brownie
and the other looking like he'd much rather be doing anything else then what I
was making him do. 

A Reminder

Perhaps my eldest's fascination with life cycles began last year in Junior Kindergarten when they learned about the life cycle of the butterfly but it has continued into the summer.  He's also constantly asking questions about when my husband and I were little:  what did we play with?  Did we have video games?  What did we watch on tv?  What did we wear, eat, where did we go?  Did we ride a bike?  What colour was it?  How much money did the tooth fairy give us when we were kids?

ONE DOLLAR!??

Yep AND there was no such things as remote controls or household computers, there was such a thing as penny candy, we never wore helmets OR life jackets, we listened to music on a contraption that included a needle running around a large round piece of vinyl, and there was only one kid's channel that played Sesame Street, Hammy the Hamster, Mr Dress Up, The Polka Dot Door and The Green Forest in rotation.

It's all pretty shocking to him much like when we were kids and our parents told us there weren't such things as tv's, microwaves, their teachers hit them with rulers and they walked 20 miles to school uphill in snowstorms every single day of their childhood.

But this newest interest of life cycles is quite amusing to me.  It's quite simple as he explained to me on the way to summer camp this morning.  His random observation came at a red light and I turned the music down to listen,

"So human's are first babies, then kids, then teenagers, then adults, then old people and then you die."

"Okay.  Yes that's about right."  There was no way that I was going to get into how babies begin as a teeny tiny cell.  I held my breath hoping to GOD he wouldn't ask me for the 50th time how babies are born and where they come from and "Mumma how do they come OUT of the belly?".

Adrian blurts out, "Daddy is old."  Phew...the origin of babies subject had been averted for the time being.

I laugh, "No, Daddy is not old."

"Well he's a little bit old."

Perhaps I should have assured him that Daddy wasn't going anywhere but I was too busy being amused by his observation that his father is an old man when in fact he looks nothing the part.  As I giggled at my son's words and turned up the music, picturing the look on my husband's face if he was in the car with us, Adrian's heart may have been worried. After all, didn't he just explain to me you get old and then you die?  But maybe not, it's possible I am just over analyzing the conversation with my ever thinking 5 year old boy.  

Maybe.  

Sometimes as parents, we miss the cues that our children give us.

Only in retrospect do we realize that they were trying to ask us or tell us something more.

Today was a reminder for me.

To remember to keep my eyes open wide, my ears open wider and my heart and mind the widest of all.