We were stuck inside all day as the skies unleashed what seemed to be buckets of rain. The rain fell heavy as we watched from the window and under the shelter of our front porch. The kids sat on the front steps, reaching a hand or stretching a foot to catch a rain drop. They giggled as the skies broke loose, wreaking havoc on the trees as the leaves lost under the weight of the downpour. We moved back and forth, back and forth—from the front porch to the house—all day long, as we waited and waited for the rain to stop. All I could think about was passing the time until the storm was over.
Since we couldn’t go outside to the bright blue kiddie pool we have in our small backyard, the kids got in the tub and played with toys and bubbles, kicking to “Splish, Splash,” on the radio. My one-year-old daughter learned how to kick her feet that morning in the tub, and my son and I laughed as we watched her raise her foot, quite deliberately, and then bring it down again. She echoed, “One, two, three” and then kicked her foot. It was still raining when the fun was over.
We made peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches and my daughter marveled at this new white substance, her small lips outlined with white. When I put the jar away in a cabinet within her chubby arm’s reach, she quickly opened up the cabinet to retrieve it. Her new love is marshmallow fluff and I just can’t apologize for that being my one-year-old’s new obsession. And yet, the rain still hadn’t stopped after this special treat.
So, we danced. Boy, did we dance! We put on Uptown Funk on the radio and my son ran for sunglasses for us all. Mimicking the dancers from the video, all three of us danced around the living room. The rain didn’t’ seem to care that we had put on our sunglasses; the sky remained dark and the rain kept falling.
Next, we gathered all of the blankets we could and made a huge living room fort—the first time we had done that, the three of us. The kids crawled through it and rolled around underneath it, but my one-year-old couldn’t resist wrecking it. It wasn’t long before it was just a huge pile of blankets, but it passed a good thirty minutes. For a second, it felt like winter–the cool air of the air conditioner and the soft blankets. But the summer storm would not cease and we were reminded of that as we went to the front porch again to have a closer look, the humid air hitting us in the face as we opened our front door.
Rain on a summer day can seem unfair. All day long we waited for the rain to stop and when it did, we rushed outside. All day long, we wanted the rain to stop, but in the passing of the day, we made memories, just the three of us. My daughter learned how to splash with her feet and ate marshmallow fluff. We all danced and made forts together for the first time. A simple day became one filled with memories. Wishing the time away was missing the beauty of these special moments, these fleeting moments.
After the rain stopped, we were left with flooded sidewalks. We live in a big, old house and we need new sidewalks. Just the previous evening, I had been complaining about how uneven they are and my husband and I were discussing our options. But, as I watched my children, finally outside after a day of fun inside, my son took my daughter wading through her first rain puddle. I was so happy for the flooded sidewalks that I rolled up my pants and waded in the rain puddle with my kids. This day couldn’t have been more imperfectly perfect, as we learned literally to dance in the rain and to wade in the water afterwards.
