Beach Time

Some people say that getting to know a family and being a "mother's helper" type of person is preparation for having kids of your own. I don't doubt it as today I learned a couple of good lessons:

1) When taking a 2 year old to the beach that has a pier, be sure to pack the stroller. Yeah. We took B. to the beach today, his one and only desire was to boat watch and so the first thing we did was to go over to the pier where the "boat parade" that was going by. We then proceeded to start walking the pier, which I shortly calculated was a very long pier. That + 2 year old who likes to be carried + no stroller=very tired Gina. Thankfully he walked part of the way and my partner in crime carried my water bottle.

2) Make sure you have another person with you when you order take out and have to wait 20 min. while tending to a 2 year old. One person waits for the food while the other person entertains the kid and chases after him.

All in all it was a very fun experience. I was surprised at how content B. was at just sitting and watching the boats go by. I know I love doing that type of thing and could do it indefinitely, but I never knew a 2 year old could have such an attention span as well. As he continues to learn how to talk, it never ceases to amaze me how many times he can say my name in such a short amount of time. He has also recently started saying "Bob," as in the talking Bob the Tomato who lounges in the back of my car. We almost had a crisis when B. could not reach/find Bob while we were driving home. Thankfully we had french fries and my partner in crime was able to pacify him with those. I wonder how many times mothers wish they had a third arm, of the "go go Gadget" type in order to tend to kids in the backseat while driving.

So life goes on and the Lord is faithful to continue to make it interesting. All kidding aside, I am very thankful for these type of "distractions" that keep my focus off of myself and onto blessing others in the midst of my own struggles. He is good, and in the midst of it all, He is (slowly) teaching me how to wait. Slow only because I am a slow learner. But even that He knew ahead of time, so it's not an issue. Anyways, keep looking up, because He is good even in the midst of circumstances that don't make sense from a human perspective.