time flies

This summer, our family took a quick weekend trip to a waterpark that had an indoor amusement park.  It was a very stressful trip for me, as the place was very crowded, and my husband and I are outnumbered 3-2.  And with the ages the boys are (8, 4 at the time, and 2), they need constant supervision.  We are fortunate to have a pool in our backyard, and so the boys are comfortable in the water.  But add several hundred strangers, and slides, and a wave pool, and Mom gets very uncomfortable letting anyone out of arm’s reach, let alone sight.   The vastness of the place did not seem to faze my boys.  They acted like they were at home in our pool, and each ran a different direction.  The oldest disappeared to the slides – hey, he was tall enough, what’s the big deal?  Then he convinced Jeff to go with him, leaving middle child standing waiting for them to come down.  I, meanwhile, was in the kiddie pool with youngest until somebody’s child created an unsanitary environment (read pooped) and they had to close the pool.  Middle child got tired of waiting for Jeff and big bro, so he went to the wave pool.  At least, that’s where we found him, having the time of his life as the life guards looked on.  STRESS!  Before our room was even ready, I was done. I gathered everyone together and told them that no one was going back in the water until they could listen.  So, we took a break.  Went to our room, changed, had a snack. 

We decided to check out the amusement park.  It was a big warehouse-type building with carnival rides inside.  And hardly anybody was there.  There were no lines for the rides.  In fact, sometimes we even had to wait for someone to come run the ride.  Now, of course they had height restrictions just like any carnival would, and there were some rides that the boys weren’t tall enough for, but there several they could ride.  I was surprised to find out that my oldest was tall enough for just about all of them.  When did he get so big?  How did I not notice?  I took the little one to a few of the kiddie rides while Jeff took the other two around.  But then, Jeff had to take middle one to the bathroom, and oldest really wanted to go on a specific ride.  So, toddler in tow, I followed him to the ride and watched as he stood next to the “you must be this tall” sign and was, indeed, tall enough.  “I don’t know,” I said.  “It looks kind of scary.”  “No, Mom, it’s okay.  I can do this!”  And my oldest child, the one who is still afraid to sleep in his own room, climbed onto the ride.

And what gets me, is, that he could do it.  He was the one who was reassuring me, showing me that he is grown up enough to do it.  Wasn’t it just yesterday that I had to reassure him that he was big enough to:  use the potty, dress himself, go to school, swing by himself, ride a bike,  insert your own experience here?  When did that change?  Or is it constantly changing?  And how do I know how much to let go?  I still get choked up when I think about the look on his face as he got on the ride.   So confident, so happy, so…grown up.

Enjoy every moment of this day with your children.  Rejoice in their short flights on little wings!

Ruth