Yesterday morning I snuck into each of my kids room with the same anticipation and surprise that comes with Christmas morning. I crawled into each of their beds and laid my head down next to theirs. I whispered into each of their ears ” wake up, I have a surprise for you”.
While they all clamored down stairs for breakfast I gathered them around me and exclaimed that we are going to the beach for the day! This in itself is not a huge announcement, we live a few hours from the beach and it is not unheard of to take a day trip there.
What made yesterday so special was the fact that it was their last day of summer freedom. The last week has been full of school shopping lists, trying on cloths, and changing summer routines to school time routines. They days have ticked by and I can see the realization in their eyes that back to school is no longer an abstract idea, but a looming truth.
But not yesterday. Yesterday we set everything aside. All the looming deadlines; the hustle and bustle. Yesterday we choose to stop the whole world for just one day. We piled into the car and stopped only for snacks and beach toys and within a few hours the land fell away and was replaced by the repetitive splash of salty relaxation.
We played until the sun went down. As I loaded my sun kissed and exhausted children into the van to head home, my son laid his head on my shoulder. He feels so big in my arms. I am tired and he is so heavy. I pause and hold him extra long. We listen to the crickets in the dunes and see the first of the stars glimmer above the water.
“I don’t want to leave” he whispers in my ear. “Me either baby boy, me either”.
Lancaster Doulas celebrates first and last days in Adams, Berks, Chester, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Montgomery, Schuykill and York Counties