Summer with a 18mth-ish child...

Right now we're getting a much overdue new roof on our house. If you've ever lived through this process then you know just how loud it is being in the house for both the shingle removal and then the shingle replacement process. We evacuated and headed to my mom's house to enjoy the peace and quiet...and the pool of course. One of my favorite friends, Brantley, brought 2 of her 3 sweet boys out to join us on Friday and I was telling her how I'm starting to remember how hard it is to have an 18mth old child at the pool. Nap times are still a MUST and they can ruin a whole afternoon trying to plan around them...and if that same nap is missed it can also ruin an afternoon and evening...nap times are kinda a double edge sword that way. But what's also hard is this age child is too big for baby floats but not always strong enough for traditional swimmies either. Tripp doesn't have the core strength yet to hold himself up right with a life jacket or swimmies so he ends up doing the dead man's float if not being supervised 100% of the time...this leaves little room for relaxation for momma...not my favorite way to spend my time at the pool but I know this will be the last summer when this is a problem...in just a few months I know he'll be floating around independently. But then the late afternoon rolls in and my baby boy gets sleepy & a little bit snuggly and then my very favorite thing happens...I get to hold one of my babies while they're sleeping...and sadly I know this will be the last summer I have a baby to rock asleep. I'll always look at my kids and see the sweet babies they once were...and I know my arms will ache to hold them like this again. So I'll gladly get in and out of the pool all summer long...sacrificing my own pool relaxation time...in exchange for these sweet moments. There will be plenty of summers to relax but I only have a few more months left to enjoy my sweet baby boy!