Dear boys,
Well, this concludes another year of "Letters" and the end of another summer well spent. We've visited family in various places, ridden ferries and gondolas, been to the beach, Cape Cod, the boardwalk, arts camp, the Catskills and Connecticut, Grandma & Pow Pow's and most recently perched in front of the air-conditioner during these brutally hot August days.
I happen to love this photo of the two of you with Cash looking directly at the camera and Grey behind his sunglasses distracted by any number of things - a car, a bus, a garbage truck, a dog pooping. It encapsulates your personalities (and probably a few birth order traits!) perfectly.
One of the main challenges this summer was often keeping you guys safe from one other. There would be fights over toys, personal space and the focus of my attention. But for the most part you were able to play endlessly with your imaginations and high voltage energy. You'd dress each other in superhero costumes (sometimes made up of household objects) and play fight with your swords and lego guns for what seemed like hours. I'd often think to myself, this is the gift of a sibling, the gift of a brother. You are truly each other's forever playmate.
Amazingly we survived the never-ending heatwave this month with only one trip to the emergency room. Hours of ninja, warrior kung-fu gymastics off the furniture in a small space - yeah, I'm not surprised. What does surprise me is how we managed to go this long without incident or injury. And then it happened. Little brother poked a finger into big brother's eye during one of the battles. Cash, rarely do you cry and even more rarely do you want to go to the doctor, but after a few hours with your eye watering and your vision blurry, we decided to go. Piled into a cab on one of the hottest and most humid days in New York history, I snapped a picture with my phone. Despite the purpose of our trip, I found the expressions on your faces hilarious - especially that of you Grey -- the culprit.
As soon as we got to the clinic, I began to question whether or not we needed to be there. While waiting for the doctor to come in the room, you guys were back to your usual antics, eye injury be damned. But I figured at least if something happened we were already in doctor's care. We ended up leaving with a prescription for eye drops as the doctor and I had our own private eye roll -- "life with boys" -- and headed home in another sweltering taxi.
Sometimes you cause bodily injury to one another, but the times you comfort, encourage and protect each other stand out the most for me. One of those moments this summer was at the beach when Grey was too scared to walk to the edge of the water. That is until Cash reached out for his hand. Daddy and I were sitting underneath the cabana when we happened to see this tender gesture of love.
The other morning I was lying on the couch when the two of you crawled in under the blanket, one on either side of me. I thought to myself, how incredible that all three of us fit together like sardines, realizing one day you two might be six feet tall and won't imagine a time when this was possible. Right then I said a little prayer of thanks for you two boys, my sons. I love you more than you could possibly know.
With you I celebrate another collection of summer days and the end of another year of "Letters" filled with chapters of your childhood.
I love you. Always & forever, Mom