This morning, after a Saturday night with my three-year-old nephew, I needed coffee. Bad. He was very well-behaved, tons of fun, and hysterical, but my brain may not be accustomed to the loads of extra mental energy required to simply be in the company of a three-year-old child. The last 24 hours in my brain was a constant stream of WhereIsHeWhatIsHeDoingWhereIsHeGoingWow Breathe ICannotEvenGoToTheBathroomByMyself Breathe OhGeezWhatAreYouDoingToTheDog NowPutYourShoesOnPutYourShoesOnPutYourShoesON.
So, yes, coffee. Sure, I could have made it at home but something told me to go down to a local coffee shop where there are other people, perhaps capable of adult conversation, and other kids and dogs. Note to people planning on hanging out with toddlers: find other children and the one you’re with won’t seem quite so loud. Works like a charm. So we’re sitting at the coffee place, having coffee and orange juice and egg and spinach paninis (there is nothing the kid won’t eat, thankfully), and he squints up at me through the bright light of the Colorado sun in the morning and says “Auntie Lelley, I love you and I love summer.” My heart melted right there. Sure, the table we were at looked like some sort of crumb tornado had hit it, but at that moment the kid could have hosed me down in orange juice and I wouldn’t have cared.
Apart from how adorable it is when a kid says they love you, I was also so very proud that some of his very favorite things are also some of my very favorite things. I mean, yes he has parents and they’re very influential and blah blah blah but I somehow convinced everyone to go the beach when he was 10 days old—the end of May 2006, in fact— and I will always take credit for starting him off right when it comes to summer.
On the drive home, after being completly full of coffee and breakfast and covered in crumbs and sunshine, I put all the windows down, turned up the music and yelled “woohoo, summer” with him all the way home. And sure, summer will not be official for a few more weeks, but after greeting it the way we did this morning, totally carefree and thrilled, I’m pretty sure it begins now.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
You’re the best kind of Auntie!!
Kids really do say the darndest things don’t they? But you know what? I kinda love summer too.
Kids really do say the darndest things don’t they? But you know what? I kinda love summer too.
Now, that’s good for what ails you!
Children boil life down to it’s essence. I have this picture in my mind…one day I pulled up to preschool, and I was fiddling around in my car when I looked up to see a Mom and child walking up to the door, hand in hand. Mom is serious, focused, moving ahead. And there is her little girl, hanging on to her hand, skipping, hopping, twisting around, grinning, leaping, and singing. The short walk from the car to the school door was filled with movement and joy and exuberance. Funny, you never see adults doing that – when did we lose it? Sometimes I think that is the attraction of running – at least for me and my goofy husband. Silliness abounds on our runs, little dances and leaps and twirls, big gestures, monkey calls, it’s our grown-up way of being a child again.
(This might be the seed of a post, don’t be surprised if you read it again!)
ah it’s the simple things.. life is good
gp
Awwwe that’s so cute! Stories like that confirm my desire for having children.
aww, sounds like this weekend was good for the soul. and just what you needed.
That day at the beach is finally coming back to reward you, proving yet again that you should almost always go with your instincts, no matter how ill-advised it seemed at the time.
Kids – the mess and the noise and the energy… and then the love. They are little bits of heaven in a human body!
Sounds like a wonderful start to summer!! (I would love to go and shout with the windows down for the pure love of it all)
Oh joy!! Are you ever LOVED!
Ah yes summer…you are being a wonderful auntie and teaching him well. Great thing about him is that when you are tired of him, you can drop him back with his mom and dad and go on about your life. I think they are great to “borrow”…:)
“Hosed me down with oranje juice”-luv it!