This past weekend was one of those weekends that gave me pause to remember just why we willingly uprooted ourselves from the community we love in Florida and moved back to Michigan. I need those reminders, because even though I’ve adjusted and settled back into life up here, there are frequent moments where emotion knocks me over like a tidal wave and I miss my friends in the south so very dearly.
It was Saturday afternoon, after The Narrator and one of his brothers had run a triathlon, and we’d had a birthday lunch for The Narrator’s 33rd birthday. The kids and I were floating in the pool with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. Little Miss had hold of her auntie’s hands and they were twirling around the pool this way and that way, very lady like. And then there was T-Rex. Picking a fight. With his uncle. Who’s over six feet tall. Oh the trash talking. I have no idea (ok, maybe I do) how in short 3 years he learned how to trash talk so well, but he’s mighty good at it.
“I’m gonna get you Uncle K!!” Followed by much splashing and thrashing. “Nuh-uh, you can’t get me, I’m gunna get you. I’m gonna wreck you, you can’t get me!!” Uncle K let T-Rex ride on his back, cling to his neck, splash him, thrash him, and seriously trash talk him. It was quite the male bonding, while the three of us girls just tried to avoid the tidal wave happening in the other side of the pool. I’m not sure who wore out who, but I’m sure they both slept very, very well that night.
And as I floated on my little pink noodle observing Little Miss being very girly and T-Rex being as boyish as they come, enjoying playing with their aunt and uncle, I sighed a little sigh of contentment. These little family moments that happen now and then are part of why we moved back – for our kids to know (and trash talk) their aunts and uncles, to have cousins to play with and be friends with. To grow up around their roots. And so I can float in the pool while other family members entertain my kids. Ok, well maybe not consciously that part, but it is a nice perk 🙂
#5 MDM