A Summer Day

A few minutes before 2, I pulled into a parking spot next to the playground at the Y and watched my son teach five-year olds to kick a soccer ball. It was a 90 degree day, and the kids all looked like wilted flowers. Jonah pranced around with the ball and tried to get the wilted flowers to copy him. Instead, they looked out at the parking lot hoping to catch a glimpse of a parent. Jonah saw me, because I had jumped out of the car and was taking pictures of him with my iPhone. He pretended that he couldn’t see that strange person in her workout clothes embarrassing him. Who’s that weird lady? Certainly not my mother. 

Jonah works as a volunteer camp counselor from 9 to 2 this summer. His first unpaid internship! So proud.

He got into the car and gushed about the adorable kids. I rewarded him with a shake at the burger joint down the road, and we drove off to pick up the CSA vegetables.

On the drive, he played with a game on his phone. Without looking up, he asked, “so what did you do today, mom?” I was unprepared. This is the first time that he’s shown a scrap of curiosity about my life without him. I told him that I worked on two articles, I answered a million e-mails, I did a couple of miles on a treadmill, and I checked in on Grandma. The five hours that he’s in camp go really quickly. He grunted an okay and then continued killing aliens on his phone.

After Ian got home at 3:30, I decided to take the kids to the mall to see Despicable Me 2. It was too hot to make them go outside, and I wasn’t in the mood to fight them all evening about playing hours of video games.

Typical day at a Jersey mall. I only flipped off two people in the parking lot.

We ate some nasty burritos at Chipolte. Ian asked if it was time to go into the theater every three minutes. Is it time yet? How about now? Can we go early? Can I check the time on your phone? We’re going to miss it! There was a time, not so long ago, that he couldn’t talk. We found Steve, who decided to join us after work. We handed over about $60 for tickets and $20 for the obligatory popcorn and drink. Ack. And then settled into a mediocre movie for a couple of hours.

A couple of months ago, we made a bucket list of things we wanted to do this summer. We were determined to make every minute count. Of course, lots of moments this summer will not be bucket-list moments, but will be small, tiny moments that mix mediocrity with treasure.