"Da Summer"

 

 

 

 

I think that this year, we are getting lots of use out of the neighborhood pool. Lat year, we didn't visit the pool much. I was still kinda a neurotic Mommy who thought that the sun would destroy any of Emma's skin cells and set her up for skin cancer and then it would be my fault new Mommy so we did lots of indoor stuff. But not this year! We have come to love out little pool area and eat lunch and hang out for most of the early afternoon. We usually have the entire pool area to ourselves which is kinda neat...

One of the most coolest things about the pool is the "mushroom thingy" that has water coming from the top. It's a relaxing noise and little ones really seem to love it. But when it's not working, well,as you can see in these photos, little Cooper and Emma are very unhappy when it doesn't work!

It is hard to believe that summer is coming to a close already. School in our area started today and many of my Mommy friends have children going to school for the first time. I'm trying not to think about it, as in just a few short years, Emma will be one of those children. One of my biggest challenges has been to stay in the "here and now" and enjoy every moment i can of this time with Emma. Watching her learn to "swim", pick up any and every single bug she can find, picking flowers with her and playing with play-doh has been what we've done this summer.

And it's been the best summer ever.

We've also taken to walking together, Emma and i. I don't know if you've ever walked with a toddler, but wow. We stop and look at everything. And i mean EVERY.SINGLE.THING. We touch it, sniff it, look at it closely, see if it moves, poke at it, see what it feels like and then we sniff it again. If it's really interesting, we may have to carry it for a while. Which is okay. Unless it's a bug. And then i'm not too okay with it. I usually end up carrying rocks and flowers which make me look like some lost 70's flower child who is looking for their VW Station Wagon.

Walking with Emma forces me to do a lot of things that i don't normally do. Like pay attention to where i'm walking. To notice things that i would normally walk quickly by. Or maybe scream at the top of my lungs say "hi" to any and every single neighbor, animal, flower that i may come across. Which i wouldn't do anyway, but probably should. It forces me to slow down and see things in a different way. I usually don't stop for bugs, rocks, flowers, cracks in the sidewalk, grass, or twigs. But i do now and i can't say that i'm not having fun seeing all of this wonderment of the world through Emma's eyes.

And what an amazing world it is to see through her eyes...and i'm so happy that i'm getting to see it through her eyes. I guess as a grown-up, you forget how nifty rocks are, or how pretty flowers in your hair really can be. You have grown up thoughts and worries and forget these kinda things. Everyone should have a young child in their life...so they can truly appreciate the life they have and not forget the beauty of God's creations. No matter if some of those creations are icky bugs; they are still God's creations and should be picked up, looked at, poked and sniffed.

Off to dig out the rocks, bugs, flowers and twigs from my short pockets... :)