Vacation Realizations

When you vacation with your family, you tend to bond a little more than you do on a day to day basis. When all 5 of you are sleeping in the same bedroom, you even learn things about each other that maybe you didn't know before.

For instance, I noticed that my soon to be seven year old baby girl brushes her hair first thing upon waking. I mean she does not go to the bathroom or ask for food or see if anyone else is awake. She stands in front of the mirror and thoroughly brushes her hair.

I stayed in bed one morning watching this process without her knowing. I found myself looking on in sheer marvel. This is not what I do when I wake up. Where did she learn this? When did her hair become important to her? How did I manage to miss the fact that she is maturing before my very eyes?

My new four year old seemed to mature over night as well. Watching him at the pool with just his swim trunks made him look so much older. No more life jackets. No more fear of the water at any depth. He went from swimming as far as he could hold his breath to swimming the distance of the pool. It seemed nothing short of miraculous.

My two and a half year old, after watching his siblings for a day or two also decided to lose the life jacket (but only when mom was in the water). He went from not wanting to get his face wet to purposely putting it in the water just to look around. He even told me he needed to go potty while he was swimming (and yes, got out of the pool to do it!).

I sat there in a lounge chair at the side of the pool with all three of the kids IN the pool. I actually read a magazine and thumbed through a baby name book. And then it hit me - my babies have grown up. Memories of the last two summers with two babies it tow and only one swimmer flooded my mind. Did I really survive that? Summers of strollers by the pool and floats galore, numerous trips to the bathroom to change those disgusting swim diapers, and never getting one moment of relaxation have faded into the past.

Then a wave of nausea hit and I remembered that all too soon, I will be back there again. In fact it will be a summer with a newborn who is not so new that I can't go out and yet not so old that I can use sunscreen. But in the same moment that I began to doubt my decision to start this whole process over again, I reminded myself that in another two short years, I will be back at this place again and we will all be better for it!