My favorite time of the day has become the early mornings, so long as nobody else is awake.
The mornings are divided into two parts for me. There’s the time before the kids wake up and the time after.
It’s going to sound cruel, but that window before the kids get up is delightful. It’s just quiet and simple. I have even found myself getting up earlier than usual to enjoy some alone time because the entire dynamic in the house changes dramatically once the boys start moving for the day.
Because we live in an old house, as soon as one of my kids takes one step out of bed, I know it downstairs. Beckett will always come right down, while Carson will often either play in his room or go rub his mom’s back in bed. For the record, he’s never rubbed my back.
Once the children wake up and are downstairs, the requests for this and that begin. One particular morning Beckett seemed entirely too needy. He wanted more of this and that and didn’t want to get up himself to get it. I grew quite impatient with the various requests, especially those he could do on his own.
On my way downstairs at one point, he scared me when he came flying of the bathroom. He informed he had good news, which will always stop me in my tracks. He said the good news was he didn’t ask me to go to the bathroom for him. He then told me the bad news was we were out of apple juice.
I do love my 10-year-old’s sense of humor.
One week into the summer break from school and I already miss the school routine.
It’s not that getting one kid to school at 8 and another at 8:25 in the morning was ever facile, but it was predictable. Combine both of us working extremely busy jobs this time of year with Beckett’s summer camp and Carson’s camp and therapy schedules, it’s incredibly hectic.
For instance, this is what our Wednesday looked like.
Beckett decided he wanted to take singing lessons this summer with his school music teacher. Pam, whose busiest day of the week is Wednesday, dropped him off at school for that at 9 in the morning, while I took Carson to the office with me to get some work done. At 9:30, I picked Beckett up and then swung by the office to take Carson to take camp. I dropped Beckett off at his camp in Ocean Pines and then Carson off at his camp at Chesapeake Martial Arts. Carson had a doctor’s appointment in Salisbury at 3:30 p.m. followed by speech therapy. He and I got home at 5:45 p.m. as Pam was getting home with Beckett from camp. She then went to lead her personal training session from 6-7 p.m.
The blessing of the day after all that running around was Beckett was content to play in his room while Carson wanted to play his geography game that didn’t require me.
That’s when I snuck in some alone time in the pool to take some deep breaths. While I should have done laps to get in some exercise, I just breathed instead. It was a great part of the day.
After a few minutes of heaven, knowing the kids were alone inside, I came back in to find them both playing the game together and arguing over where New Zealand was locate. When they saw my hair was wet, they both stripped out of their clothes and back to the pool I went.
With the pool, it’s amazing how the times have changed.
There was a time when we nearly purchased a fence to put around the pool because we both were paranoid about our toddlers falling or jumping in without us being right there. I remember even pricing it and reconsidering when the shipping date was too late into the summer. That’s one purchase I’m glad I never made.
The boys can now swim without any trouble. That’s been the case for a few years. However, even when they were decent swimmers, they would refuse to swim unless I did. That was really no trouble for me, but it required a lot of energy because it involved playing nonstop games with them and throwing them around the pool. Since they held the man-up advantage, I was basically getting double teamed.
Today that’s not the case anymore. They basically do their own thing in the pool. My involvement now is basically rebounding the basketball from the pool hoop for Beckett and retrieving pool noodles and toys to keep Carson entertained.
Even Pam, who worries about everything when it comes to our kids, has changed. While she still gets nervous when they are in the deep end, despite both kids being capable swimmers, she has mellowed a lot. I even saw her literally smelling the roses in our backyard the other day while the boys were in the pool. Years ago, she would have been at the edge of the pool with eyes fixed on them. It appears we are all growing at our house.
One day recently I got greedy and brought a pool float out to lay on while they were doing their own thing. That was regrettable. As soon as I got comfortable, the boys partnered on dumping me and then had a brawl over who gets to use it first. I should have known better.
I think that was their way of reminding me they are still boys.
