Who Took a Dump in My Happy Place?

Vroooooom
Vroooooom
Vroooooom

It's a soothing sound
Like ocean waves,
Or late summer crickets,
A babbling brook.
White noise
Silencing the rest of the house's occupants.

The vacuum glides over the carpet
Creating pleasing patterns -
Indoor crop circles,
Erasing the activity of the day.
The tread marks of little sneakers,
The grass clippings,
The tire wear from matchbox cars-
Wiped clean.

Vroooooom
Vroooooom
Vroooooom

Ahh.
Take me to the happy place.
The clean and happy place.

Vroooooom
Vroooooom
Vroo-CLICK
RATTLERATTLERATTLE
CLACK.

Lego.

I Will Break You

It's been some time

Since you acted out

In piano

Or got reprimanded

In swim.

Did we break your spirit

Like a wild mustang?

Did the pile of parenting books

Checked out from the library

Actually help?

Did you just get older and 

Figure out on your own that 

The fits weren't getting you anywhere?

Should I just have chilled out

And let time 

And development

Work their magic?

Could I have saved up some energy 

From my own counter-tantrum tantrums?

By the time you are too old

For all of it to matter,

I may have this parenting thing

All
Figured
Out.

Wave Pool

The wave pool
Is a watery mosh pit.
My twins are the slam dancers
Feeling the music-
Joyfully careening into strangers.

They are two independently floating
Pieces of flotsam.

They bob up and down
In their red life jackets,
As the waves crash at them
From either side,
Dousing them happily.

I am the yellow shirted bouncer
Facing away from the stage
With ear plugs in,
Annoyed with the jostling
And splashing.

"Too deep"
"Come back"

I am still clinging to the idea of safety.
I am trying not to be a stick in this mud.

I should jump in with them
And float
And bob
And dance.

A Day at the Beach

He is sitting in the sun baked sand,
The only warm place on the beach today.
The strong wind is blowing cold air inland from over the water,
The waves more like an ocean than a lake.
They draw up the sand and churn brown.

Before him rests a bubble gum pink basket,
Bunnies decorating the sides
Dancing in an endless parade,
A reminder that this pail once held: jelly beans, chocolate and green plastic grass,
A surprise on the dining room table on Easter morning.
Now it is filled with a mixture of sand and murky water

He is having trouble filling the bucket with more sand,
His movement limited to using his non-dominant left hand to work the green shovel.
His right arm is up in the air.
His hand clutching on to the string of his kite,
Still flying at full extension of the string.

He would rather do both things poorly than
Relinquish his turn at the kite's helm.
He must do it all.
He must get everything out of his
Day at the Beach.

Hard Work

He grabs a scrap piece of paper and black ink pen
And starts to give a pen a vigorous workout.

Quick jots here and
Long lines there.

He pauses to push the hair out of his eyes and sigh.
He scratches the whole thing out and starts again.

I sidle over to where he sits,
Anxious to see a funny new drawing,
But there are no rock bands playing guitars.
There are no baseball teams.  No Zombies
No TNT.

There are numbers.
Progressively bigger numbers!
He is challenging himself!
He is doing math- high level math
On Summer Break!

He diligently continues his work unabated for several more minutes
Until finally, he looks up,
Beaming with pride.

"Look, Dad"  We still have 5,184,000 seconds left of summer vacation before school starts!"

Comics Week Day 3: The Wait

From our recent Six Flags adventure:

Comics Week Day 2!

This fabulous comic was drawn by my 10 year old for my birthday!

Here's the whole thing...

And panel by panel...