That Perfect Moment

One night after dinner, we put the kids in their swimsuits and headed out to the kiddie pool in the side yard. It was its first appearance this year.

The kids were overjoyed. They played nicely and there was no fighting. Steve, Lauren (my sister) and I each sat in chairs around the pool, dipping our feet in. I had a glass of Steve's peach chardonnay in my hand, and I was relaxed and happy.

It was a Perfect Moment.

The ironic thing is I had been looking for that Perfect Moment all day. The four of us went to Look Park, specifically to try out the Splash Park for the first time this summer. It didn't go over as well as we had hoped. Rosie didn't really want to get wet and Buddy was still making his mind up about it. It was okay; we knew that it didn't mean other times would be a bust, it just meant this time wasn't all that we thought it would be. We had a picnic lunch at the park, and that went pretty well. I thought it would be an excellent day to get ice cream on the way home, so we stopped at our favorite stand.

I guess, in hindsight, I should have known it was too much- Rosie melted down into a full-out tantrum and it lasted the eight minutes it took to drive home.

I found myself being a little disappointed that the day wasn't the really fun one I had imagined in my head. When Steve mentioned getting the pool out, I was sure that wasn't going to go well, either.

Imagine my surprise when that singular activity brought out the Perfect Moment. The one activity that didn't need much work on my part, the one activity that was spontaneous instead of planned. It reminded me that the Perfect Moments rarely come when carefully planned- they come when you least expect it, while you're sitting out by the pool, tasting the first sip of summer.