This past week Ce was happy. Not just happy, but unusually bubbly and helpful. So much so that both Michelle and I commented on it to each other almost in disbelief. I realize the moodiness is completely normal and will continue for the next few years. This was an unexpected rainbow in the midst of cloudy skies.
There are so many things that often don’t go right or go as you planned when you’re a parent. So many frustrations, stressors, requests, and obligations that can throw you off track. What are you going to focus on? Unless you make a hobby of gathering these impositions into a lint ball of resentment, the best course I can think of is to just recognize and appreciate these tiny miracles.
Every week Dash gets a little nervous on Friday when the suitcases come out. Every week, he responds by sleeping real close to his Mama so she can’t escape in the night.
Who needs a chiropractor when you have (sort of) small children to walk on your back.
Which way do you put your bread in a toaster? Facing in or facing out? Do you still own a traditional toaster might be a better question.
Every time the girls go to the food store with Michelle they come home with at least one thing that makes me question if Michelle was with them or just sent them into the store alone. This week: a dragon fruit.
Shopping done, it was time to haul stuff down to the beach. It was going to be a hot one and prime beach space would be at a premium when the tide came back in.
It was another epic game of Jenga that included a Poppy turn that lasted almost fifteen minutes and almost ended fifty years of marriage.
Finally, friends started to arrive.
Parenting with friends on the Cape is the best. You can put your faith in the collective power of the group to keep an eye on things. Or the odds that it won’t be your kid that’s bleeding.
The second Saturday in August is always the Brew Run. While we couldn’t convince any of our friends to run, Michelle and I were signed up. Something we might have been regretting given we were sweating just sitting in our beach chairs. Our friends are way smarter than us.
Not sure why I appear to have an invisible bubble around me at the start. Probably respect.
We both finished despite the heat. The last mile and change (the race, for unknown reasons, is 5.2 miles) was full of shambling running carnage.
Michelle, despite her continued pleas of just getting a workout in, finished fifth in her age group, slammed two Bud Lights, and then headed back to the beach. She’s unstoppable.
Continuing the post-race cool down in the bay.
Sometimes I see a very fancy house or a high end car and I wonder, what does the person living there do for a living? The answer isn’t typically a pop star, athlete, or cultural icon. It’s usually that the run a very mundane, but lucrative business. Like making aqua “lily pads.” Basically a giant piece of floating foam. Genius.
The kids (okay, adults, too) played on the lily pad for hours.
After lily padding and running, it was time to re-up on the carbs with some baked seafood ziti. And some random friend chicken (another Michelle shopping oddity).
Finally, a sunset to round out the day with another tiny miracle.
