Summertime

Summertime is about swimming, eating watermelon, playing outside, enjoying ice cream, and firing up the grill for hamburgers and hotdogs.  Or at least it is for most kids.

I hate summer!  When I think of summer all I can think about is the list of things we can't do or can't eat.  Swimming is difficult because swimsuits make Bee itchy.  Wearing a swimsuit leaves her skin exposed and vulnerable and it's too easy for her to scratch.  Bee is such a water baby and loves to swim, so we try to make it happen as often as possible.  But it is so. very. stressful.  Watermelon is a no-no because she is allergic.  Who has ever heard of an allergy to watermelon?  I mean, really?  Playing outside makes Bee hot and itchy and scratchy and rashy.  Outside=hot=inflammation.  Inside begins to sound really nice.  Ice cream.....ha!  Other parents take their kids to fun ice cream shops and little Bee has not seen the inside of one.  Hamburgers and hotdogs............a no-go.  I am determined to learn how to make a hamburger bun that Bee can have so we can make our own hamburgers.  At least I can work toward that part of summer.

When I begin to think of what summer means for most and how it will never mean those things for Bee I begin to feel so down.  We'll just have to learn to make a new definition of summer for Bee.  She doesn't need to think in those terms.  She can use her own dictionary and define summer according to the things she can do and the things we do together.