After much sale-watching, review-reading, and over-analyzing, I broke down and said “yes” to an inflatable water slide for the boys. Ryan and I had been talking about it for more than a month. I anxiously watched the price yo-yo on Kohls.com while waiting for a big discount code. Last week, a huge, heavy box finally arrived on our front porch and the weekend couldn’t get here fast enough. But then Theo developed a fever and was vomiting on Friday. The forecast said 40% chance of rain for the next million years.

But THEN, by some miracle, Theo woke up feeling fine on Saturday and the radar was perfectly clear. Ryan had a million other things to do, gave me the “REALLY?” face, and seemed annoyed with me for inviting a friend over to play with the boys and their new toy.  I assured Ryan he could continue doing his yard work while I watched the boys and chatted with our company. No problem. This was right around the time our neighbor walked by with his push mower, pointed and laughed, and said “suckers!”

The dang thing took an hour to set up and longer (much, much) to fully take down. But he did it, and he rolled his eyes a lot but he didn’t complain (much) and I knew it would be that way and THAT’S just one reason why I love him so much. Because he puts up with me, even when I create a bunch of extra work for him. That’s one of the many reasons we celebrate him on Father’s Day.

The boys had so much fun (after we explained to them that this was a special thing, and not an every day or even every weekend thing). Theo woke up today saying “today’s a special day because it’s Father’s Day, and yesterday was a special day because we got our slide out!” I can’t wait to set it up and let them play again. Or to let Ryan set it up again.  Their little faces are so worth it. I’m almost sure of it.

xo,

~C~