No Gills Necessary

HS is a fish. He may look like a typical 6 year-old, energetic, personable, mouthy, emotional, but deep down he yearns to be a fish. Good thing he is one and has invisible gills that are so invisible they aren't even traceable with any high tech gadgets.

He's been addicted to the water since I participated in a mommy and me swim class when he was 6 months old. While all the other babies busily clung to their mommies for dear life, my fearless lad pushed through to the "dunk" me phase of the class. He adored going under. Loved coming back up and having the water pour down over his eyes, nose, and mouth. Heaven. Pure and utter heaven for him. Things didn't change as he grew. Babyhood soiree's lead to toddler years of pushing as far into my comfort level as he could. Swim lessons continued as he found new love in wearing "gobbles" and then progressed into the learning to dive phase (much to my holding of breath, crossing fingers and toes that he'd be all right only to have him smile and wave just before diving into the deep end at the tender age of 4).

Hawaii is perfect for him. He's in his element. Each beach outing begins the same. A tossing of flip-flops aside as his feet hit the sand and then he takes off running creating a sandstorm behind him as he races for the water. He knows enough to wait for us to get to the water, but those moments of waiting for us to get settled and ready to put our feet into the water are almost to much for his little heart to handle. Once he's in he's thrilled...he spends enough time to turn himself into a living prune and then comes out after much pleading from us.



"Ok...I'll play in the sand then..." he says as he looks longingly at the waves crashing behind him.

This is the next part of our beach outing ritual where he demonstrates that his desire to be a Seal will and cannot be ignored. His second love, besides being in the water, is being fully covered from head to toe in sand. Wonderful, itchy, pain in my a** sand. To him, sand is freedom to let loose and enjoy his moments on the beach before heading back to the water. He becomes a great sugar cookie that only a mother and seal would love.

This evening, even after a scrub off at the beach, a scrub at DF's house before dinner, and then a 15 minute shower, sand still remained in his hair as evidence of his fish-hood. I tucked him into bed and gave him a kiss on the cheek, feeling the grittiness of the sand as I rubbed my fingers through his hair and sighed....no gills necessary for this water lover.