The unmitigated joy of it all

We went to the boat show in Miami on Friday. It was cold, gray and rainy. Our jackets were not waterproof. Mark was being difficult and prompting disapproving looks from strangers (sometimes as he ran straight into them). As is often the case in such moments, I felt like a failure as a mother.




On the water taxi to the other part of the show.

Some hot chocolate to warm up.



We took a water taxi and bus to the other part of the boat show, which took so long that when we got there we had to turn around and come back so Matt would be in time for a seminar. He was helping the broker that sold us our boat give a talk on "project boats." Yeah, here's a tip for you. Don't buy one. Just kidding. Sort of.

While Matt was at the presentation, the kids and I walked around the show. At one point, as we walked along the waterfront, Mark decided to go tearing as fast as he could along the sea wall. I was yelling after him to stop, chasing him (while trying to keep Conrad with me) and having visions of him tumbling down into the water. A couple of times he looked back to smile and make eye contact and then keep going. From a distance I saw a security guard and then later an older woman stop him momentarily but he must have convinced them that it was okay for him to keep running because they let him go.

When I finally caught him I was extremely irate. I was about to start chewing him out for not listening when he broke into a huge grin and said, "I'm so happy!" "What? Why?" I asked. "Because this is so cool!" That and the ecstatic look on his face melted my cranky-mom heart right down. It's hard to stay mad in the face of such pure joy. Well played, little man. Well played. Of course, he still got a timeout for not listening. Yeah, sometimes Moms have to be jerks.

The snapshot above (sorry, it's hard to take dolphin pics with a slow, crap camera) shows a few of the dolphins that were playing along the seawall. At one point they were right next to the crowd of people watching and several dolphins were diving down in a circle. If you could bottle the happiness that dolphins bring to people, man, you would be rich.

We ended the day with mojitos and fruity drinks for the kids and, despite the weather and difficulties, some great memories.