Today, I should say, this evening, my husband, Jon took us out on the boat at the nearby lake/reservoir. What a perfect evening. The water was clear and still, and you could see to the bottom. It was Jon, me, Jonathan (15) Kendallyn (13) Myelie (11) and of course, Braxton, my wonderous toddler. The bigger kids went swimming, and Braxton thinks he is a big kid, too, so he did not understand why he could not just jump right in with his siblings. The children all wore their life jackets, of course and Braxton had his on, but I wasn’t going into the water, so neither was he…. (I am scared of fish or crawdads touching my feet, but it does not bother my husband or kids.)
My hubby did jump in, but he thought it would be too cold for Braxton, anyway. He did park the boat in a private setting and before their swim, and Braxton did get to wade in the shallow part of the water with his daddy. Jonathan also pushed him on the kneeboard we brought along. We BBQed hotdogs on our portable grill and had a really peaceful time.
Braxton is such an adventurous little boy who is afraid of nothing. He is really loving water this summer, whereas about a few months ago he hardly liked to take baths. He didn’t like getting his hair wet.
When Jon would drive the boat, Braxton was either helping Daddy steer it, or he was hanging over the side letting his hands drag in the cool clear water….as Mommy held onto him very tightly. “Let go of me, Mommy!” I wouldn’t dream of it, but Braxton is fearless, of course! And, just to make note* He ALWAYS wants to be naked, but I am certain that is normal for his age, although he recently went through a small window of time where he was getting pretty modest…….go figure.
My toddler wears me out, but I would not trade these moments for anything. When we arrived home, Braxton wanted to jump on the trampoline and kick a ball which I kept retrieving for him. I ended up getting pretty tired after the 20th time, and got him to agree to go inside to settle for the night, but after an hour of cuddling, which to him means his age appropriate ‘goodnight shows’ and nursing……..I had to have some ME time, so I pawned him off to his big sister and bribed her to bathe him…. thus, a moment for me to write in this blog.
I hear him hollering now, so I’ll try the nite nite routine AGAIN and hopefully it will work this time around!
My goal is to get this child to bed at a regular time and not have him be the boss, but right now I am too much of a pushover and Braxton knows it:) That goal my never be achieved, but I can always hope. Goodnight, I think:)