Family Life

We had swimming class tonight. It’s always a rush to have dinner, get the boys ready, out the door, in their swimsuits and lined up for class on time. Today it was more difficult than usual. Tomorrow I’m going away on business, and after work I had to pick up a rental car for the trip. That meant I got home later than usual.

Debbie was stressed trying to get dinner ready on time and feed the boys. The boys were in high spirits and inclined to not pay attention (i.e. disobey), further exasperating Mum. I had been rushing around getting everything ready for my trip, while trying to get home in time to take the boys swimming. And the boys were still sick from the cold we’ve been sharing. Were the kids really able to go swimming tonight? Was Dad ready to take them? Was it really worth it?

Next week is the last session of the term, so I figured with only two classes left we’d better not skip one. So we went.

Daniel enjoyed himself, as usual, energetically participating in all the activities, as usual. A couple of times he caught my eye from across the pool and waved and grinned. He was having fun.

Joel clung for dear life to the edge of the pool with his usual terror of the water. But he was the first to volunteer for every single activity, reaching out to his instructor and then carefully doing what he was told. I don’t know if he enjoyed the class. I couldn’t tell. But he was involved. I was proud of him, and glad we’d gone.

It was snowing when we came out from the pool. It had been snowing all evening, big fat flakes drifting gently down. It wasn’t very cold (relatively speaking), so the snow had mostly turned to slush underfoot. The boys enjoyed catching the snowflakes and stomping through the slush. When you’re two or three years old you haven’t seen a lot of winters, and the first snow is like a new discovery all over again. It was a good end to the day.

I won’t see the boys for the next few days. So I store up memories of times like these to tide me over their absence.

Photo note: a picture from the beginning of the year, when we were only four.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 10:23 pm. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.