With Memorial Day behind us, the summer season has officially begun. You wouldn’t know it if you were here, though. The weather has been so cool that it feels more like early April than late May. We went up to the cottage for the weekend, though, where Thomas made memories of staunch boat-riding refusals a thing of the past.
We were in the garage on Saturday afternoon and Thomas noticed the peddle-boat that my mother-in-law bought last year. Thomas asked what it was, I told him, and he requested that it be brought down to the water so that he could ride in it! Same kid as last year, remember, who wouldn’t even go near the water except to point out that he didn’t like it and wanted nothing to do with it. Jonathan and his brother carried this little 4-person (well, 750 pound capacity, anyway – four grownups would probably capsize it) peddle boat down to the water. I figured that it would be great if Thomas would ride in it because it involves physical activity and it’s not all that much different from his peddle car. He got in, I got in, Hayley got in and even Sophie got in and we peddled around the little bay very merrily indeed. Thomas really loves it! I love it too because the boat is so small that I don’t need any help getting it away from the pier or getting the kids (and the dog) on the thing or off of it, and it’s great exercise. Thomas requested that a grown-up take him out in the peddle boat several more times during the weekend.
The real triumph came on Sunday. When a father has a son, he dreams of many things they’ll do together: play catch and t-ball, watch football on Sundays in the winter and, in Jonathan’s case, ride the waverunner together in the summer. We bought the thing about 16 months before Thomas was born, so it’s been in our family longer than he has. Ever since we found out that Thomas was a boy, Jonathan has been dreaming of sharing the joys of waverunnning together. This past weekend, he finally got his first chance. After we replaced batteries and sparkplugs, cried as we filled the watercraft up with gas (the BEST reason of all to use the peddle boat!) and launched the waverunner, Thomas announced that he wanted to ride with Daddy! And he did! He didn’t want to go very fast, but he did ride it around the bay slowly with Jonathan and he really liked it! We just can’t believe the complete turnaround from last year – who is this child? All of a sudden, Long John Silver found his sea legs and his grandfather would have been so proud!
The rest of the weekend was pretty good too, except for the big pine tree falling on everyone’s cars. There were severe storms in Madison on Sunday night and they blew what was apparently an unhealthy and also huge pine tree down right across the windshields of our cars and the garage doors at the cottage. This whole thing turned out to not be a big deal, but it disturbed Thomas a little bit. We had just walked back inside after getting home from a friend’s house for dinner and two minutes later, a neighbor knocked on our door an told us that a big tree fell on our cars. I think that Thomas didn’t understand what was going on but was reacting to the intensity of everyone’s voices. He was saying that he wanted the tree to fall on our “old truck so that we could get a new one.” He was getting upset and confused, so I took the kids out to see the tree which had broken off about six feet from the ground. The tree being so far out of place seemed to agitate Thomas even more, so I said that I didn’t think we should talk about it anymore until the next morning.
The next day, everything was a little less serious since the storms had moved on and the sun was shining. Thomas wasn’t nearly as upset about it anymore, and the tree helped keep the kids out of the driveway and away from the cars. The latest official report said that the tree will be gone tomorrow, and all will be right with the world.
Tomorrow, I plan to call Thomas’ new kindergarten teacher for next year and see if we can come and visit one day next week. We’re having a tough time at home since school ended. The change in routine for Thomas is difficult for him to digest, but once he gets used to it, things should improve. This seems to happen every year at the beginning, end and during Winter break. Thomas has just been very energetic at home and he has a difficult time following instructions and staying calm. He plays too rough with Hayley (but she doesn’t mind) and is very loud. I’m hoping that vacation on June 7 will help take the wind out of his sails, so to speak, and we can settle into some kind of summer routine.
