There’s something about the warm weather that just reminds me of being a kid. Maybe it was all of those summers off from school (man, I wish I had those now) or the copious amounts of hot dogs and hamburgers I’ve been eating.

Whatever it is, I just love spending time with my nieces and nephews (yes, I have a new nephew—my best friend gave birth to Baby Martin at the end of June!). They are all under the age of four and full of energy, so they love to run wild outdoors when it’s nice out. A few weeks ago, I accompanied my sister, brother-in-law, nephew and niece to a local public pool.

Now this was no ordinary pool. I kid you not; this place is like a mini-water park. It has a wave pool, a slide and a really cool sprinkler area for little ones. We got there just as it opened so we could claim a spot and put down our things. Needless to say, we didn’t get to sit and enjoy the sun for long. My nephew, Aidan, took off right away and wanted to go into the kiddie pool area. My niece, Kayla, who just started walking last week, wanted to crawl around and check out her surroundings. Even though the adults outnumbered the kids, we were still chasing after them.

For this PANK, it was a little intimidating. As much as I was having fun chasing Aidan through the sprinklers or playing with Kayla in the pool, I couldn’t help but notice the many external factors in our surroundings that could harm them: the concrete walkways, the big kids who splashed the little ones and the crowds.

Amazingly, we made it through the day unscathed and managed to have a lot of fun. Aidan got me to give him some of my fries, Kayla tried standing in the water and by the time I got dropped off, both kids were passed out in their car seats. Despite all of my worrying, I think that’s a sure sign of success!

Published: August 11, 2010