Hi
all,
We
spent the Fourth of July at the lake and it rained all week. But it didn’t matter. Because we had the whole crew there and it
was tons of fun. Rin was really into the
fishing and nothing would deter this boy.
Not torrential downpours, not parents who didn’t want to sit in the rain
and fish, nothing. He was up and ready
to fish every single morning just like his hero on the show River
Monsters. He keeps asking if he can be a
world famous fish scientist when he gets older.
I reply that of course he can. He
can be whatever he wants. I just hope
it’s something that gives him a chance to follow his passion.
Every
once in a while during the week the clouds would part and the sun would shine
down. And where there is rain, there are
rainbows and we saw a few. Bek spotted
one on the way home from the Despicable Me 2 movie where we went when we
couldn’t stand being in the house any longer.
What is it about rainbows? They
just make everyone stop and marvel at them for a minute before going on with
their busy lives.
There
have been two sort of major things that happened over our trip to the
lake. The first is that Bek has finally
decided to be a big boy. Despite the
fact that he was fully capable of going in the potty for quite a while, he was just
sorta not interested in actually doing it except every once in a while. Well now, little man has been diaper free for
almost a week. That doesn’t mean that
he’s been accident free but the diapers are gone. We had 3 peeing incidents on day 1, one on
day 2 (but then we stuck him in a diaper for the 5 hour car trip to the lake),
one on day 3, and so far so good on the rest of the days. I mean, it helps that he’s been running
around either naked or in a swim suit.
But little man is now a big boy.
I’m so excited!
And
also, our big guy is becoming Mr. Responsible.
Today at lunch time, I asked Rin what sandwich he wanted and he told me
“PBJ…But I’ll make it.” And as I helped
him get what he needed, he also insisted on making little Bek’s sandwich
too. And then he called him to the table
in that singsong-y little voice, “Beeee-eeek!
Lunch is on the taaaable!” So
bittersweet this mothering thing.
Because at the exact same time I am thinking how proud I am of my sweet
boy, I am also thinking how sad I am that he’s so big that he doesn’t need me to
make his sandwich anymore. It’s such a
tug of war on a mom’s insides. And then
it was back to regular life. No one to
entertain the boys but me myself and I.
Sigh.
But we kept pretty busy. We took an impromptu trip to Philly courtesy
of the Washington, D.C. passport office and the lack of appointments available
and the need of our sweet Bek to get one asap for our trip to Costa Rica (so
excited!). I figured we’d make lemons
into lemonade and turn it into a fun family getaway. And it was fun.
We went to a yogurt shop and our boys are
so sweet that they gave them cookies just for being sweet. We played hide and
seek in the park with Bek yelling “ca-caw! ca-caw!” to help us find him (not
sure where he got that). We played “Get my booty”. We went to the beautiful children’s museum
there where we went to wait for them to do Bek’s passport (sweet people got it
done in 3 hours! So we didn’t have to stay the weekend). It was fun.
Bek just has this way about him that makes
people want to give him things. You
know, like the passport people offering to do it in 3 hours. All he has to do is give them a smile and a
wave and everyone just loves him and accommodates his every want. Learning
might not come as easily to him as it does to Rin but I have no worries about
him being successful in life. People
literally want to give him whatever he wants.
He has this magnetism and it will serve him well as he gets older.
I love that Rin is so into learning. It's
fun but its a little bit obsessive the way he dives into everything. He doesn't
just learn a few things about a subject but he learns EVERYthing about it. The
other night I came in to give him a kiss goodnight and he had his tiny
flashlight and was reading about the intestinal track of a shark. He was
genuinely interested in the function of the Whatever Gland and if we had one in
our bodies (we don’t, it’s something that filters out the salt water I think).
Is this normal? I think maybe no. But is it great? Yes it is. I think it will
serve him well in life. He is not the easy-going kid that Bek is. He is more
intense. I didn't realize how much so until I had that contrast. But what it
means is that he is a go-getter. He doesn't take no for an answer. He knows how
to stand up for himself. He wants to learn about everything. And that is a very
very good trait to possess. I wish I had
a little more of it in me actually.
Maybe I wouldn’t be 6 months behind blogging if I did. J
Love to all, -m
