One of Those Perfect Days in the Sun

June 25, 2013

So remember I said I was not a beach person and I could take or leave Florida in general? To me the beach = sand and salty sweat.  Well, I am aware that a lot of people are NOT like that, they love the beach.

My mom was somewhere in the middle, she did not care for the heat and humidity of Florida, but she did love the beach and being by the water in general. I think she found her peace there. My best friend and two of my aunts (my dad’s sister and one of my mom’s sisters) are also that way, beach = peace. I get it, there is an energy and a smell at the ocean that is unlike anything else. 

I bring this up because my dad’s sister, who lives in Indiana, was in Florida for the last few weeks and this past weekend was her last weekend in town.  She wanted to spend it with me and P at the beach.  I happily agreed, although I have to be honest, I was not jumping for joy on the inside, but I knew it would make my aunt happy to share that with P since the beach is very special to her. 

We got to Cocoa late in the afternoon on Saturday, so we just swam in the hotel pool and went out to a nice dinner.  P loves the water and my aunt used to be a swim instructor for years, so they really enjoyed the pool time together. Sunday morning we packed all of our gear and headed to the beach.

Wow. Just…wow. I learned very quickly that my child LOVES the beach. We had not even finished putting our bags down and setting up our chairs….he took one look at the waves and the water and ran, just fearlessly ran towards the water and barely got out the entire time until we were ready to leave. He was the only toddler I saw there that kept going back for more.  He got tumbled by the waves a few times (I was right there the whole time to keep him from being scared…or being too brave for his own safety!) and he just laughed and stood up and waited for the next one. Seeing him so happy was the most fun I have ever had at the beach…ever. And maybe I got a little taste of that whole beach = peace thing.

There are moments with P – just day to day things that stop me in my tracks sometimes and make me really miss my mom.  The entire trip to the beach was one of those experiences. I know this will keep happening, P is obviously going to keep growing up and he is going to keep experiencing life and I am going to keep thinking ‘I would have given anything to have my mom here to experience this’. But this day at the beach has been the biggest one so far. Maybe because it was an experience that she would have soaked in with such complete happiness and joy….playing with P in the waves at the beach. I could picture her there in the water with him in such clarity, it almost seemed somehow unfair that I, someone who takes all things beach for granted, got to enjoy that day with him and she did not (I am learning there is no logic in grief).

So I am off to reroute some of my summer weekends to include some beach trips. This will make my best friend happy.

Patience

June 7, 2013

Testing My Parental (and Patience) Skills

 

So when I was pregnant, I was just sure that I would be SO in love with the ‘newborn baby’ phase and that I would not be so in love with the ‘little kid’ phase. Pre-parenthood I was very awkward with children (I am still awkward with children that are not in a similar age bubble or younger than P), so I was pretty sure that once my child wanted to play and have interaction other than the affection and stimulation and one-way conversations required of a newborn baby, that I would exit my parenting comfort zone and J would have to take over the reigns as primary fun person.  Not that P is very far into the kid part of his life yet, he still has two months until he is even 2, but we are definitely not in the baby part anymore, and I am happy to report that I am loving this age as much, if not at times more than when he was squishy baby.

I did love the baby part, I loved it! I was a little surprised at a few things and there were some times where I felt like I was ready for the ‘next step’.  I was never wishing time away, but I remember specifically a moment around the 4 month area where I was like ‘P is awesome, but it will be nice when he has a few more motor skills and can interact a little more’ since newborns are basically little turtles for the first few months. As P has inched out of Babyland and into the treacherous waters of Toddlerworld, I have really really enjoyed seeing him develop his personality and become a little boy.  I do miss the baby part at times, but I am loving this as well.

Can I add one ‘BUT’ though? But…holy moly my easy and laid back child (to this point) can get his feelings hurt and have a meltdown if he doesn’t get his way! It is so sad and frustrating and maddening (and at times embarrassing). I hate to see him cry, his pouty lip and big ‘you crushed my toddler soul’ eyes, it breaks my heart. I am whipping out my toddler parenting books as we speak and trying to be a quick study!

I was briefly discussing this with one of my close friends in MI who just had her first child in March (i.e. not a toddler at all yet). She is a very logical and practical thinker (although I also am most of the time too) and she commented that she knew the toddler phase would be an adjustment to her as well when the time came because when she thinks about it right now, her mental response is ‘No, you cannot have another cookie young child, you must move past this and get over it’. Case closed. I chuckled to myself and responded to her that in my head, I usually have that same response as well…..but it is rarely as simple as ‘no, you can’t have another cookie’ (especially since we don’t really give cookies). It is more like ‘No, P you can’t open the oven when it is on, or help mommy cook on the stove, or vacuum for an hour, or sit in the freezer with the door open, or climb the magazine rack, or play in the toilet, or go outside in the middle of the thunderstorm, or run the dog over with your push toy, or put your hand between your legs when you have a poopy diaper…..’. The list goes on.

I know meltdowns are a natural sign of our little humans progressing and learning and becoming independent thinkers, it is just an adjustment!

Oh Hurricane Season, How I Have Missed Thee

June 6, 2013

Oh Hurricane Season, How I Have Missed Thee

 

Welcome to Florida my friends! June through November is hurricane season in Florida. The time of year where meteorologists get very excited whenever a storm system in the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico shows even the slightest amount of rotational organization.  When weather that would otherwise be called ‘rain’ gets the titillating label of ‘tropical moisture’….exciting, right?

Today, the weather experts are as excited as can be because we are only 6 days into June and already they have Tropical Storm Andrea! Woo-hoo, I think the local meteorologists were starting to feel left out of all the weather news by the recent tornadoes in OK. 

Listen, I take Mother Nature seriously, you better respect her, because she has NO respect for you….so I am not trying to make light of weather disasters, especially devastating ones like the tornadoes in OK and major hurricanes.  This is not that.  This is rain, heavy at times, and there are tornado warnings (although we get roof, trailer, and tree damaging tornadoes here, not 2 mile wide neighborhood destroying ones like the Midwest). Incidentally, the scariest storms I have been through in Florida were when I was kid and some storms came through our area….in March (not hurricane season) that spun off a few damaging tornadoes and we had no power for a week. 

Not much else to this post.  I was just feeling like….well, like a FL meteorologist, I couldn’t let a perfectly good tropical storm pass by and not make some kind of commentary about it.