Pukey Sentimentality and Awesome Backyard Fun

When you have a beach in your backyard bedtime in summer can sometimes be negotiable, especially when Brooklyn didn't provide quite the same temptation...there were others, for sure, but not a beach with a hammock and an orange and purple sky that would eventually fade to black velvet littered with diamonds. When you have that you kinda don't worry much about bedtimes and, well, let's be honest, going anywhere else once you're home.

Zedder can eat up the better part of a night...dinner, attention and catching up from the day, a bath, some play time, reading...before you know it 8pm has come and gone and you haven't stepped back outside from the minute you slammed your car door shut after work. Usually, if the weather is right, we'll hit the beach almost as soon as Dad gets home (even though it's very likely that she's already been on the beach all day with Grandma), and then scoot back up to the house in time for Mom's arrival and dinner. It's really easy to forget about going back outside though. When you get busy you kinda forget what's back there. With a backyard like this, and only a short amount of time left here (maybe just this year) it's pretty important to get out and enjoy what you've got. Zo sure doesn't mind obliging.



Lately, we've taken up the idea of post-pajama playtime outside...she's got lots of pajamas when the original choice inevitably get tarnished with the filth of fun..and we sneak outside and hang out with the sun low in the sky and the Tigers on the now cleaned up and fixed radio...BOOM, instant day fixer upper. Zed rides her new bike, (thanks to Mike and Serree) or plays in the hammock with Mom and Dad, or just chases squirrels and shadows across the lawn, whatever she chooses, really. Boats roar past...airplanes fly overhead...and we soak up the last of our day with this beautiful little kid. Nothing's too difficult to take when Zed's grinning the day away.



And trust me...the girl is good at grinning. She's practically got it down to an internationally recognized art form...on par with painting goalie masks and Banksy's graffiti.



I don't think I've ever had as much fun in my whole life as she does in the backyard in one night. It's kind of inspiring if that sort of sentimentality doesn't make you want to throw up.



Nausea never felt so good.

I suppose that it's not all that different from anything in life, sometimes you need reminding of what's awesome right in front of your face. Who cares what's on TV? What's so important about checking your email? A radio can make the Tigers game portable (thanks Aimee for reminding me to dust this one off). You only get so many toddler giggles and sunsets in your life, not to mention that there's got to be a finite amount fo hammock time that we're all alloted in this mortal merry-go-round. Zedder's pre-bedtime fan fest is a reminder of everything that we have that we should hold tight, and now I feel stupid even owning a television...you know, until football Saturdays in the Fall.



So far the best part about being a Dad is finding humility right where you left it so long ago... in enjoying the absolute gift that childhood is, for everyone. You can't get it back, but you sure can soak some more of it up.

You can find more to soak up right here.