My Fish Story

Today we made use of the early summer weather and spent the morning at the beach.  While my children and husband played in a giant hole dug in the sand, I decided to go for a swim.  We'd gone into the water together a few minutes earlier, but the adults only made it in up to our ankles. 

The water at Burlington Beach takes forever to get deep. By the time it was up to my hips the people on shore were the size of sand flies.  I was watching a school of minnows swim by when, suddenly, I came face to leg with an enormous creature.  The fish, which was about the size of a small dog, swam right up to me.  I gasped and jumped a little.  The fish had the same startled reaction (if you can picture gasping without lungs and jumping without legs).  I lost interest in swimming and ran to tell my family what I'd found. 

A passing kayaker identified the beast as a carp looking for a mate (sorry, fish, I'm married).   Wikipedia says the carp is related to the goldfish.  Now that I think about it, it did kind of look like those big goldfish they have at the Mandarin, only this one was much larger, and less festively coloured.

Of course, when I waded out with my family to show off my discovery, my gigantic swimming friend had already disappeared into the deep.

He looks so innocent

We were the first to arrive at the beach for our outdoor play date, despite having taken an hour preparing peanut butter and jam sandwiches, packing fruit and cookies, and washing off the sand toys that have been sitting in our sand box (aka mud and leaf box) all winter.  Most of my favourite Mommy friends came and the kids barely glanced at the playground equipment they were so excited to play in the sand.

Before anyone else arrived I had to remind William not to throw sand.  There have been times, while at the park near my house, that I've gone home for this after only one warning. But this park is a 15 minute drive, instead of a 5 minute walk, and my friends were coming.

In the next little while, it became clear to me that William was simply in a sand throwing mood.  Part of me understands.  The sand at the beach is so soft, so perfect, so throwable.  When he threw sand directly in his friend Aedan's face, I had a fun lecture-talk with him about what we could and couldn't do with sand.

"Can we throw sand in our friend's face?"
"No!"
"Can we throw sand in our sister's face?"
"No!"
"Can we dig a big hole in the sand?" 
"Yes!"
"Can we dump sand on our friend's head?"
"No!"
"Can we use the sifter to play in the sand?"
"Yes!"
"But we don't throw sand, right?"
"I will not throw sand!"

Soon after, William threw sand AGAIN.  This time at his friend Annaliese.  He likely did it because he was pretty sure I wasn't watching, and he would be right.  But I had lots of other mommies and children being my eyes and ears.   I took William aside on a bench for a time out.  I showed William the time on my watch and told him what numbers it would change to when three minutes were up.  Then, having no more weapons in my dicipline arsennal, I gave him the ultimate threat :  we would go home if he threw sand again.

My friend was just congratulating me on my calm doling out of discipline, when he threw sand again! The final straw was a fairly innocent exchange between him and his friend Leyla.  I say innocent, because she threw sand too, though I'm pretty sure William started it.    I had no choice, I had made a promise.  I packed up our stuff, and we left. 

He cried all the way home, saying "I want to go to the beach!"  I honestly told him that I wanted to go to the beach too, but we couldn't because he was throwing sand. We were running out of children who had not had sand thrown in their faces and hair by my son.  I only hope he remembers this incident, so he doesn't become a schoolyard bully, or the class loner.

Now, hours later, William just calmly told me "I've very mad that you left the beach."  There's always next time, William.  It's going to be a long summer.

Algonquin Park Summary 3: Water Water everywhere

Yes, we did have rain, pockets of rain, pockets of sunshine, pockets of rain again. Still we spent lots of time at the beach, swimming and splashing in the cold "refreshing" water. William loved the splashing, so did Jadzia. Hunter was content to stay on the sand perfecting his sandcastle-building skills.

During a pocket of sunshine we optimistically rented a canoe. It began raining immediately. We joked that every time we said the word "canoe" the sky would open up again. We ended up paying for an extra day, so we could actually get some paddling time in. And we did, taking turns enjoying the quiet serenity of the water, spotting some herons, some ducks, and some Canada Geese (who I suspect were also tourists from Burlington).