Our weekend of summer ‘firsts’
I get a little giddy when I see my two boys, looking cool like this – giddy that our days will now involve less time in our home and an insane amount of time outside. We officially kicked off summer with our first day at the pool! My sons, Rocco and Roman, were so excited they could’ve screamed … and they did.
It took every ounce of energy to pack up towels, hats, sunglasses, sunscreen, water shoes, diapers, wipes, extra baby clothes, dry clothes, goggles and swimmies BUT we did it, Brian and I. While I have no clue how I’ll do this alone – you know, carry everything that we need from the parking lot to the lounge chair with 2 boys, bags and baby boy in the stroller – I’ll figure it out eventually. The struggle is worth the reward, right? Once we got there, I put my PiggyToes on a lounge chair, lathered sunscreen on the big boys and off the went – in different directions.
*Insert screeeeech*
Ummm, wait, wait, wait! We need a pool routine? Rules? Of course we need these things, because one boy can’t be in a stroller, one in a kiddy pool and one in the big pool all at the same time. There is no way.
*Insert meltdown, because we have to take turns in each of the pools.*
Sometimes, I just think that nothing can ever be easy. Sometimes, I just want to whine, too, trow my hands down to my sides, cross them in front of my chest and whine/scream, “Reeeeeeeeaaaaaallllyyy?!”
I mean, I get it. Rocco is completely “over” the baby pool because he’s 5 and he’s super cool now, and Roman … he’s cool, too, but he rocks the kiddy pool. He loves it. He even asked for a picture in front of it.
As anything, it’s going to take time to establish our pool routine, our rules for when we arrive and our plan for these pool days. Mama is one and monkeys are three.
In and out of the pools, up and down the steps, splash, splash, splash and it was time for lunch (ice-cream, too). We exhausted the pool. They exhausted the pool. I exhausted the lounge chair with my littlest love.
It was an awesome first pool day. One 1 small meltdown? We did good.
But going to the pool couldn’t be our only “first” this weekend. Fishing was on the agenda. JOY.
Now you see, before mama became a princess, she used to cut worms between her finger nails so that she could fish with the boys. True story. Now-a-days? You would never find mama doing such a thing. Maybe if it were do or die, and even then …
Its by God’s grace that I don’t have some great story to tell. Lakeside, water, rocks, fish, flying bats, stinging bugs, sharp hooks – our excursion was typical. Load the supplies, drive to the lake, teach little boys how to fish, have some fun hoping and praying (I prayed), and go home. No one caught a fish.
Rocco only hooked himself, once, and Roman had a biter on his line but nothing held on tight. Baby Mario was pleasant and happy as can be and Daddy was frustrated and losing patience with two excited boys. Mama was eaten alive by bugs, of course, because I was the only one wearing perfume and didn’t know we had fishing on the agenda.
I’m sticking to the role of photographer.
Web columnist and local blogger Angelique Lorence is a mother of three boys, a Robert Morris University alumna and resident of Washington County. Visit her personal blog Where the Piggy Toes Go for this column and more on family, food, fashion and everything in between. Follow The Piggy Toes on Facebook and on Twitter: @thepiggytoes.