Summer of Love

I realize that it's November 2nd. I've been meaning to write about summer adventures with Sam since, well, my last post in August when it was actually still summer.

Anyway, with Sam turning two last May, I guess part of me feared what everybody calls the "terrible twos." They really haven't come yet. Instead, I felt (and still feel) like now that Sam is two and two+, I have this little buddy to hang out with. He's active, mobile, has a great little personality shining through, and can communicate with me in his funny little ways.

Over the summer, my little buddy and I did fun kid stuff together like ride the Chariot (which, set up to my old 29er mountain bike, is dubbed the "Mama Mobile" by me, and "Mom's Bike" by Sam) to go to the outdoor community pool. There, we'd play on the slide, swim in the pool, wrap ourselves in towels and sit in lounge chairs eating popsicles.

We rode the Mama Mobile downtown Boulder, and took the free train ride. We took long walks through the Community Garden with our dog Hannah, and picked cherry tomatoes ("nomaynos"). In our own garden, Sam sat on a chair in the shade eating a popsicle in the afternoon, and I'd bring him peas from the garden. Late in the summer, we dug up carrots and ate those, too.

We had a breakthrough with him liking vegetables this summer, and I'm certain it's because it's fun to pick them from a garden and eat them.

We walked, and Sam rode his Strider bike, to the playground often. We rode "geen bike" (it's green) to the stream by our house and threw rocks in the water, and let Hannah cool off by going for a swim.

We visited with family on a lake on the east coast, and family on the beach on the west coast. It's particularly fun for me to see him play in the waves and love sand. And it turns out he loves food from my favorite cheap taco stand in San Diego, too. We'd get lunch to go, bring it to the beach, and play there all day.

Maybe what all this is really telling me is that, in a lot of ways, I am still a kid at heart and love doing all the things that my child loves to do. But it's also that I just love sharing things with him, and seeing him explore and discover. And it seems that hanging out with him on days he's not in daycare (when I'm working) adds fun and balance to my week in a way I never would have known without him. It kind of forces me to slow down and...play.

So maybe the terrible twos will come. Maybe we'll have terrible threes. But for now, well into fall after a fully fun summer, two is pretty terrific.