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Health & Fitness

Meadowhill Magic

The most unassuming days can be the most powerful.

This weekend I decided to give up my 2-year-old’s nap because she’s up until midnight every night. Big fun. Unfortunately for me, my husband was doing a Costco Roadshow this weekend for our beverage, Solixir. (Check out the photo to the right...Solixir is a sparking water with a little bit of juice and herbs. It’s awesome.) That meant I had the kids all to myself. And I have to admit, I was not necessarily looking forward to being on solo duty all weekend.

So like most food-obsessed moms of toddler/pre-school aged kids, I stocked up on the “emergency foods” filled with sugar and often successfully prescribed for temper tantrum avoidance. I had snacks galore and the four basic food groups: chicken nuggets, mac ‘n cheese, pizza and gogurts packed inside my fridge. Just unloading it from the grocery bags made me feel more at ease about the weekend.

Saturday came and went without incident. It was filled with family, friends and TV time.  

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Sunday was magical.

It was a scorcher. So I loaded up the cooler with everything in my fridge, packed a bunch of clothes and towels. And headed to the Meadowhill Aqua Park before lunchtime. There were tons of people there and my kids immediately had fun before they even hit the water. Max made 3 new friends within 10 minutes, and luckily these weren’t imaginary like Ella, Jack, Detchka (the Polish rat) and the 4 other I can’t keep track of). Sami was “bop, bop, bopping” in the water. A few of my cousins and friends showed up. My mom met us there, which was SO great. It was all around good. We played. We had lunch. We all laughed. We all panicked…”do you see (insert child’s name)? Oh, there he is!” And time flew by. Around 2:00 the Aqua Park began to empty out. And that’s when I saw it.

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The pool was a crisp blue and the water was sparkling from the sun but surprisingly still. Max was floating on his back with his head arched backwards and he was soaking up the sun. There was no one else around him and the smile on his face from pure relaxation, uninhibited happiness and sheer pride was radiating outward. He was in heaven. The cool water enveloping his body made the sounds of summer surrounding him fade into the background. He might as well have been completely alone in the pool.

After a few minutes he looked up at me from across the pool and said, “Mommy, did you see me?” I nodded my head and gave him a big thumbs up sign and blew him a kiss. He went right back to doing it again. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him (which was a problem since my 2-year old was running frantically around the pool deck). I wanted that moment to last forever—for him and for me. So I took a mental snapshot. Filed it away under “best moments of my life” and went back to trying to convince Sami that if she wants to play in the sprayer, it’s going to spray her. Oye.

When I got home, I realized that none of the snacks had been touched. No emergency foods were necessary. Sami was fine. I had made it through. And what I thought was going to be a horrible weekend, turned out to be the best weekend of my life. I will forever remember that incredibly powerful moment in both Max and my lives. I only hope he can feel that way again a zillion more times. And for myself, I’d settle on even just once.

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