Let It Go!

You have to give me props. I did something pretty fab last night for my three little boys. Sommer is on the swim team at the Freedom Center and has practice on Monday and Friday nights (Ethan is too but he just goes on Mondays). The plan for Friday night is usually me taking Sommer and then I swim laps while she practices with her team.

I have noticed that it is family swim on Friday nights. That means the water slide is open (I am foreshadowing here), the whirlpool, and dumping water buckets in the main pool are all there waiting for kids to play.

I decided it was high time to take the little ones with me so they could enjoy a night of swimming fun. Calvin has football practice each Friday night...so he is already a busy man, doing what he loves best. Garth and I had gone back and forth if I should take Ashton with us or he should go with Garth to football. I didn't want him to miss out, so I insisted he join us.

The boys were so excited when they saw the "water park." Laughter and joy rippled along the waters as they splashed and played. UNTIL...the water slide was spotted. Ethan and Tate both bolted up the stairs with huge smiles and big eyes. And then, dear Ashton did too. I run over to him (by this point I am so cold from the water's temperature and who doesn't just love running around the pool deck in a swim suit...ugh!) and try to gently explain (in my sweetest mother voice) that he isn't tall enough to go down the slide (since this is my fifth kid, I have gone through stuff like this with each kid and it breaks me heart). TANTRUM number 1 begins and I understand his pain. I decide to go ahead and let him climb up the stairs to ask the lifeguard if he can go down the slide. Up we go (cringe...swim suit), get answer of "sorry, no." TANTRUM number 2 begins. This one is louder. I have to pull his hands from the bars to get him down. Eyes are on me. People are thinking, "I am so glad that isn't me. Poor Mother. But I wonder how she is going to deal with that child." I am patient as I pry his hands off the bars and carry him back down the stairs. I do my best to explain why he can't go down. We walk over to the "rules" sign and I read all of the pool rules. He wonders why there are so many. I have calmed him. Whew. Back into the pool we go. Ethan and Tate come over and we play in the swirling whirl pool. We are having fun! And then, Ethan and Tate decide it is slide time again. Off they go. Ashton starts to cry again. Loudly. TANTRUM number 3. This cycle goes on throughout the 2 hours we were there. But everyone had fun. Even Ashton. Even me. Tantrums and all.

Fast forward to 2 am this morning. I hear screams from the back room. I quickly jump out of bed to see who is crying. It is Ashton. I gently say in his ear, "What is wrong? Are you having a bad dream?"

"NO!" he cries.

"Do your legs hurt?" I say.

"NO!" he muddles through his screams.

"Then why in the world are you crying!" I am starting to lose it just a bit at this point.

He then says, "Because I want to go down the water slide!!!!"

Oh Brother child, LET IT GO!

Side note: I loved, loved, loved the hot tub...for adults only...and when Sommer came back from swim team, she watched Ashton so I could thaw.