the unbridled joy of the sea

I am so glad that Mathew has discovered the wonders of wading into waves. I don't know if it's something we, as parents, have instilled in him, or whether it's just learned behaviour from watching me, or whether it is just a natural urge that we all have as humans to return to the sea, but we spent some time at the beach today and he was charging in and out of the water like a labrador. And it wasn't even a particularly nice day. Overcast, breezy, with threatening showers, but even so he was dancing in the surf like his little life depended on it. He was in his comfy wetsuit (and a note for parents out there - if you, like us, decide that your children should always wear a wetsuit while bathing then you, like us, will have to be prepared to buy a new one every year. Children, it turns out, change in size as they get older! Who knew????)
It was a dull day with a bad forecast but we went for a beach walk anyway, and it wasn't cold so we could still enjoy the water, and Mathew has never looked happier, which makes us happier, and then tonight he has crashed into bed exhausted, which is also a very good thing! So my lessons for today are - do not let the weather change your plans, change your planning to suit the weather; and if you let your energetic son use up his energy instead of trying to suppress it, things work out better for everyone.

RC 20-7-25