My boys were exhausted today. We spent about 2 hours in the pool this afternoon. This rarely happens because I am a big baby and will only spend a good amount of time in the pool when it's really warm. I don't know what the temperature was today, but it was awesome. "Bath water" sounds cliche, but in this case, accurate. When I run a bath for the boys in the summertime, it feels just like the pool did today. Lovely. My 4 year old is learning to swim and he is doing so well. He hangs on to the ladder, and kicks off to me, where I'm standing about 12 inches away. He is really good at treading water, and is starting to get the forward motion. He worked SO hard today and I was really proud of him.
They both cried and tantrumed when it was time to get out. I was able to successfully bribe them into the house with the promise of an oreo each. I started the bargaining with popcorn, peanuts and pretzels- no sale, I had to go deep and offer oreos. So they each had an oreo and some pretzels. From there they moved to the couch and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz................. Nuts.. they both fell asleep at 4pm on the couch. I let them nap until 5:30ish. It was tough to get them to wake up, they were so tired. I knew exactly what was going to happen though. Bedtime was going to be a nightmare.
Sure enough, they both got their second winds at around 7:30-- which is normally their bedtime. I put a movie on for them in the back porch so they could play and watch a movie and work out some of their new found energy, and NOT be in my parent's hair. I'm pretty sure that by 7:30 my parents have had it with the toddler set and are ready for some hard core quiet tv time. I don't blame them. Having a grown daughter and her two rambunctious toddlers living with you in your 60's doesn't usually fit in with most people's retirement plans.
I finally brought them upstairs at around 8:40ish. Oy, an exhausting bedtime routine. 2 stories, one 30 minute "sleepy playlist" and they were still awake. I didn't get back downstairs until almost 10pm.
I had to tell myself to enjoy the bedtime. They were being really cute. They both had such a good day in the pool and seemed to grow up a little bit in my eyes today.. they seemed bigger and stronger today. So while I was laying with them in their shared full size bed, I kept telling myself not to get mad. Don't get short tempered, just try to enjoy the snuggle time. My boys are such snugglers, and I know this doesn't last forever. I made a point to try to really focus in and be in the moment with them. I hope I remember these moments when they are older and don't want any part of me anymore.
During both of my pregnancies I remember getting sad towards the end when the due date was getting close. I knew that I would miss the feeling of the baby moving around in my belly. There's no feeling in the world like the feeling of feeling your baby move around within your own self. I knew that the moment I gave birth, we would become separate entities. Never again to be attached. So I tried really hard to concentrate on that feeling and tried to lock it into my core memory. With this, it's different. They're going to separate from me gradually. I probably won't even see it happening. Day after day, months into years, they will grow up and grow further from me.
So tonight, I snuggled and enjoyed and took it all in to my core.
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