Swimming with Samuel

My Mood Board

Yesterday on the way home from work, Charles and I were lamenting about how tired we were. Monday was memorial day and we packed two days worth of activities into the one. In the midst of our lament, my phone rings, Samuel, my 6-year old is calling his father. “Dad, where are you?” he asks. I told him I was in the car driving home. “Oh good,” he exclaims, “I want you to take me swimming at the Y!”

I don’t like swimming very much and my family is keenly aware of that fact. Cheri actually volunteered to swim as proxy in my behalf, but Samuel was in the mood to spend time with his father and no one else. Upon arriving home from school he said: “I miss my dad. I want to go swimming with him.” So there you have it.

We’ve had a house full since Andrew arrived home from his mission and with James and Becki here for the long weekend to celebrate their wedding, Sam got lost in the shuffle through all the activities. We’ve had an agreement for some time that Sam tells me three things he does at school every day when I come home from work. He hasn’t been very responsive this past weekend with all the hustle and bustle.

During dinner Sam was telling me how excited he was to go swimming with his dad. “Sam,” I asked! “Wouldn’t you rather go for a ride on the motorcycle?”

He looked at me like a parent would look at a teenager who just doesn’t get it, huffed and said: “Look at me dad, I’m wearing my bathing suit.”

I was toast. I left the dinner table amidst a chorus of laughter and put my swimming trunks on. I packed a change of clothes and Samuel and his father went swimming at the YMCA.

I’m not going to say that I enjoyed the swimming, in fact, I didn’t get wet past my navel, except for the occasional crumb cruncher splashing on me, however, the time spent with my youngest boy was worth it. We talked about his day in school all the way there and back, interspersed with an argument on his liking bacon on his cheeseburger or not. (He liked it! I won that one.)

But the best part of the evening was the hug, the kiss and then the ‘I love you dad’ that Sam’s father received completely unsolicited.

Take notice of the white board in the picture. The boys took a vote on my mood upon returning from swimming at the Y. I came home in a good mood in case you were wondering.

As the saying goes: “Isn’t it about……time?”

Here is Sam helping me tune his mother’s bike