Sweet Summer

We are in the midst of our rainy season. Each day the dark clouds roll in off the Everglades and unleash a torrent of rain on the bungalow. The garden is grateful for the recent rainfall, it was a dry spring.

Our rainy season is a bit like the North's winter. The early morning heat waves are challenging to overcome for the sake of outdoor adventure, the afternoon rain and lighting makes us burrow in all the more. Our only respite comes on days when the sea breezes are strong or in the late afternoons when the sun emerges after a long rainstorm has cooled the earth. Even then, we only get about half an hour before the mosquitos come out in swarms.

So we must be creative, you see, if the boys are to get their daily dose of adventure and play.

Summer always brings this challenge. How do I continue to guard their precious boyhoods by creating opportunities for imaginative play?

Lately I've been encouraging the boys to get messy. I mean muddy, sticky, slimy, gooey, sweaty, wet, head to toe COVERED in fun. They always behave more on days when they get good and dirty.

I love when they smell of sunshine and sweat and giggles. I love finding small blades of grass in the house. I love seeing smudged handprints on the glass panes of the bay window. I love bathing a round baby who has recently played with a helping of baby food, the frothy bubbles swirling round chubby legs covered in applesauce. I love the sweaty strands of hair and the faces covered in smears of chocolate. I love this smell of life's joys.

The Bear and Cubby are assisting me more and more in daily chores as of late. Cubby likes kneading bread and folding clothes. His little voice always pipes up, "I want to help you, Mama!" and its the sweetest music of my day to hear him say so. He has also helped with sewing some of my projects. Many of the seams are crooked and the projects are at times, less than perfect...and yet they are so very perfect because my boy sat on my lap, his small hand encased in mine. My arms wrapped around his frame as I worked to help guide the needle to and fro. His little voice chattering as we worked. How I treasure those crooked seams.

The Bear, as always, loves making a game of our chores. I made fruit leather this week and we eagerly stood guard over the tray of sweet mangos drying in the sun. Peeking out of the window every so often to make sure it was still there. Running outside to rescue the tray whenever rain threatened.

I fashioned two jet packs for the boys, complete with firing engines, and they have yet to cease zooming around the bungalow. Space exploration, dinosaur hunts, pirate escapades, jungle safaris, and runs through the "deep dark forrest of animals" are the games of the day. Happy shouts and loud thumps echo through the house all day, with the occasional sparring match here and there.

This morning as I changed bedding, folded laundry, kneaded bread dough, and tidied up the living room, I noticed a strange sound in my home. The sound of silence. A terrifying sound.

Yet all was peaceful and innocent when I found the boys gazing out the window.

Bear looked up at me when he felt me settle down beside him.

"Can we play outside?"

A hundred practical reasons to say "no" floated through my mind before an eager "yes" spilled from my lips.

We ran in the sunshine, acquired mosquito bites, watched the mango leather dry, and played with trucks.

We weren't outside for long. Soon we had to come inside, strip out of muddied clothing, brush off bits of grass, and guzzle down cool water.

Both boys thanked me and ran off to play. The game they chose to play is called, "Wrecking Ball." This consists of both boys running at the hallway wall, top speed of course, and slamming into the wall with all the force their bodies can muster. They end up sprawled out on the floor, moaning a bit and giggling. Embracing joy and soaking in the magic of summer.

Sweet, sweet summer.