Summer Time is ON!

During our trip to Texas, Sadie enjoyed some QT with her cousins in the plastic kiddie pool in my parents' backyard. Simon is still a little young for this type of fun, but he'll be out there next summer tearing it up.

Sadie, Patrick and Thomas splashed and screamed and laughed their way through our visit. It was really fun to see her soak in all of their energy.

Jeff and I also came away from our kiddie pool experience with new found respect for my mom. First of all, the pool was her idea so she gets tremendous props for that. Second, each of the precious munchkins spent time undoing the little stopper that lets all of the air out of the pool. My mom repeatedly took one for the adult team by getting down on her hands and knees in the grass and re-blowing up the pool while the kids sprayed her with the hose and splashed her with the water. This type of deliberate action that would undeniably lead to messed up hair would NEVER have taken place in my childhood. (Which is exactly what my children will say in the future, because you didn't exactly see me jumping up to stick my face 3 feet from the ground only to asphixiate while trying to blow up a pool.) Anyway, there is something really endearing and inspiring about how my mother grandparents-- she's selfless, full of ideas for fun (guitar anyone? bubbles? snacks? ice cream? wagon ride? park?), and seemingly tireless. How is this possible? On Saturday afternoon, my sister was looking to round up her boys to take them home, but couldn't find them in the house. Turns out my mother had taken the boys on a wagon ride down the street. We saw her running (yes, running at full speed) pulling the wagon behind her with the boys in it. When she panted up to the yard, we asked her why she was running, and she said that they were running from shady spot to shady spot in the street, but that there wasn't actually much shade.

Did I mention it was about 109 degrees at that moment in Dallas? High noon, let's go for a wagon run on the asphault, boys!

But that's exactly her approach: sanity is less important than having fun with her grandkids, and she looks like she is having a ball.

Perhaps there's a lesson in there for me. I am thinking something along the lines of realizing that keeping my hair from getting assaulted by the garden hose may look better, but it may feel a hell of a lot better to just let go and get messy, wet, and happy.