A couple of days ago, I wrote about a pretty major change in my life. I have really started to slow down and enjoy my experiences more. Oddly enough, this epiphany occurred at my daughter's birthday party this past weekend.
My favorite sight of summer is watching a cartoon snowman melt and die... wait no it's not.
We scheduled a party for MJ and her friends at a local pool. My daughter loves to swim. Unfortunately, June in Chicago is anything but predictable so we had to hold the party at an indoor facility. Sure enough it was a gorgeous day.... but we would be trapped inside.
When we arrived to set up, I felt I had won the lottery! There was an outdoor aquatic park attached to the facility. Ok I exaggerated a bit. It wasn't quite "lottery win/tell your boss to go to hell" excitement... but it was really awesome to know I didn't trap a bunch of 10 year olds inside on one of (and possibly the only) nice days of a Chicago summer.
Because both locations were fun and the pool was a bit crowded, it wasn't exactly easy to keep track of a dozen 10 year olds. My wife and I needed to split up in order to supervise both areas. After roshamboing to see who would patrol each area, my wife claimed her victory and chose to stay inside (We played best two out of 3. I lost both times. This was probably because I was the only one who could actually get kicked in the bal... never mind).
Do I want to try best of 7? No. Please. You win.
While I was outside, I did something amazing (at least for me). I kept my phone in my pocket. Instead of looking at sports scores, entertainment news, annoying articles about the Kardashians, or even checking steemit, I just sat in a chair and observed.
Although I truly saw a lot of amazing images that afternoon, one in particular caught my eye.
No it wasn't this...
Do you know how difficult it was to find a relatively tasteful photo in order to make this joke? Wait. No one is actually reading this caption are they?
I saw two young parents with their approximately 18month old little girl. I witnessed excitement, joy, fear, wonderment, nervousness, and pain. (Oh and the toddler showed some emotions too).
I could tell these parents only had this one child. How could I tell? Both of them were playing with her at the same time. They did not have to split their attention. The fact that neither of them was sitting in the corner rocking, crying and dreaming of sleep was also a dead giveaway.
But what really tipped their hand was the ridiculous amount of caution they were showing. (Ridiculous to a parent with more than one child that is. When we had our first, my ridiculous caution was more than reasonable). Actually that is inaccurate. The mom was being way too protective while the dad wisely shut his mouth, nodded and said, "Yes honey. I will catch her every time she comes down this 3 foot long slide into the very shallow and safe water covering the soft rubber pad at the base of the slide." By the way, this is not a sexist thing at all. I think there is always one overly-cautious parent. In my family, it is me.
This is utterly ridiculous... look at those toes! His parents are just begging for a good stubbing or ten. Don't even get me started on the dangers of not wearing metal gauntlets.
It was such a beautiful site. The mom walked the baby up to the top of the slide every time. She carefully held her and waited patiently for big kid after big kid to cut in front of her little treasure. Then the mom would take a deep breath, hold it, and finally let go. The woman's hands were immediately and instinctively drawn to her mouth. Would her child make it safely all the way down the 36 inch long slide? Would her husband remember to catch the baby? Would a seagull swoop in and steal the child? Would her entire world be ok? Only after baby was safely in daddy's arms did she release her breath.
Then she started the process again. And again. And again.*
Man I wish I could be as happy as kids are!
Each time, the baby safely shot into her daddy's arms. Each time, mommy sighed and smiled... until the one time she didn't.
Thanks to my newfound ability to really take in a situation, I noticed the dad was getting a little annoyed. He wanted his child to feel the adventure of the slide. He kept getting more and more daring and caught the child later and later.
Finally, he stepped back and let her slide on her own.
Of course this was the one time she actually lost her balance. She flailed toward the end of the drop, flipped over, and landed completely submerged in the water. Mom gasped. Dad leapt. Baby popped up, got startled, looked around, took a deep breath and... giggled.
She giggled like she had just experienced the greatest joy of her life. Actually due to her lack of object permanence, it was the greatest joy of her life... too bad she was about to forget it again in 5 seconds.
But that is ok. Because that means the next time down the slide will be the greatest joy of her life... until her next time down.
After a quick diagnostic check by dad, baby was motioning to be put back down. Still smiling, she trudged through the thigh deep water (Well her thighs at least. To everyone else it was only one foot deep).
She was clearly not an accomplished walker just yet. With each step she wobbled just enough to make her dad place his arms in the "ready position" just incase she fell. But she didn't. She wobbled to the stairs, took her mother's hand and wobbled up each step. Of course each step was an adventure of its own. Her tiny legs couldn't even come close to taking each step in stride. As she approached each step, she placed one foot on it, then mustered up the perfect combination of strength and balance to bring her other foot to join the first one on each stair. Then she repeated the very difficult process until she finally reached the top of the slide. Next, she sat down, grinned ear to ear, and waited for her mom to give her a little nudge. Her mom obliged and I witnessed a baby experience the greatest joy of her life... just like she did 60 seconds earlier.
Wouldn't it be awesome if we all could experience the best thing ever... every 60 seconds?
So what is one of my favorite sights of summer?
I enjoy watching a toddler and his/her parents having fun in a pool... and reminiscing about when I was that new, overly-cautious parent who was living and dying with each tiny step my child took... and reveling in his joy.
Now it is your turn. What is your favorite sight of summer?
*Here's a little piece of advice: don't ever do something once with a toddler unless you are willing to do it 1 million times.