Beach day

This weekend, being desperate for a respite from the heavy and sticky heat, the family took a short trip to a small lake near our house to dip our overheated bodies in some cool water. Less than a mile from our house, Sandy beach is the size of large backyard, and looks over a tree-lined lake filled with small fish and dotted with sailboats. There are shaddy paths around the lake for bikers and runners and just behind the “beach” is a playground and soccer field. We congratulated ourselves for living in such close proximity to such a find.

When we arrived early in the morning the beach was fairly empty, giving it the feel of a campground oasis. There was a family of Brazilians playing in the water and a grumpy old groundskeeper cleaning up Canadian geese poop, who treated us to his musings on illegal immigration. (“It’s just like the Canadian geese. We let them in and protect them and then all they do is shit all over the place.”)

We shook this off and proceeded to cajole our water-averse son into the refreshing lake water.
Caleb remained stubborn in his anti-water stance and stood watch at the shore as dad and I frantically tried to make our case for its merits.

“Look Caleb, the other kids are having so much fun in the water!”

“See? Mommy’s feet are wet and it feels SOOOO good!”

“Look it’s your favorite toy boat sailing on the water! Come catch it!”

All of this was met with furious and defiant head shakes.

The whole scene was described (unprompted) by the curmudgeonly groundskeeper thusly: “Your wife is going to turn that child into a sissy.”

I suppose he would rather I had thrown him in, trial by ordeal-style, to see if he would sink. “Too bad about that kid. But he sure was brave.”

Oblivious to the name calling, Caleb actually had a fun time standing at the shore, screaming at the sailboats and birds and telling the other children that the ball we were playing with was “mine!”

All this is huge progress compared to our last visit to the beach, in which Caleb spent his time either screaming to go home or in the safe cocoon of a beach tent. Next visit we are hoping to actually meet the water. Someday he may even swim in it!