One of the downsides about having a large family is that it's hard to have alone time with each individual child. Sometimes I feel like I don't really "know" them the way that I would like to. So decided to give each child a day of their own on the weekend. I rotated and assigned their days on the family calender (our bible) as "Date with Mom".
My first date was with Cade. I chose him to start with because he has total middle child syndrome. He tends to need the most attention and is having the most difficulty with the move. We chose to go to the beach that is about 2 miles from our home.
The walk to the beach is mostly all down hill and absolutely gorgeous. To enter the beach you have to walk under the railroad tracks through a very low spider infested tunnel. And these aren't dainty spiders. They are huge ones with a giant network of webs. Full of succulent little spider feasts. Cade of course was fascinated and we spent quiet a bit of time in the tunnel examining spider culture.
Once through the tunnel you are faced with an AMAZING view of Puget Sound and the mountains.
So we set out to explore. We wandered the beach collecting shells. Finding "wishing rocks" and making wishes out loud while we tossed them over our shoulder into the water. Cade wished "for Erik to be here soon so we can have a happy family", "for a new bike", "for my mom not to be sad", "for Peyton to eat worms" and "to see a whale".
We found huge pieces of drift wood and made a teeter totter. Of course he could only go up and I could only stay down.
We talked a lot about his love for animals and his worries about the Gulf oil spill. He told me "Diving is creepy in those rubber suits. *shudder* But if I had to do it to help animals I'd be cool with that". We texted Erik to Google information on barnacles for us. We laughed. We held hands. We snuggled.
We were having a fabulous time. And then we saw a seagull setting in the sand. Cade wanted a picture so we walked closer. He didn't move. Suddenly the sky turned black and giant birds of all kinds swarmed the sky. The seagull tried to run and we saw that it had a bloody severed wing. Cade screamed. I pulled him back and the other birds began to attack the wounded gull. We stood stunned. We threw rocks at the other birds and tried to chase them but they were relentless. Feeling helpless I picked Cade up and carried him away from the scene. We walked as far as we could the opposite way. I held him in my lap. We talked about natures plan. We cried. And we snuggled some more. I let him eat all the kettle corn he wanted. We threw wishing stones for the wounded gull. And my heart broke for my sensitive, gentle son.
We started our long walk home. Uphill. Uggggg. And I mean REALLY UP HILL.
We collected giant leaves as big as Cade's head.
He taught me about SLUGS. Ewwwwwww.
We found the place where we are 100% positive that Edward Cullen sparkles.
Despite natures horror show we had a wonderful day. I got to enjoy time with the Cade I love (funny, sensitive, gentle, smart and open) and have been missing. No blow ups. No screaming. And it lasted all day. I can't wait for my next date with him.
