While the summer days in Kyushu are like a wet sauna, the evenings are actually quite enjoyable. Even going out with the trash after the dishes are finished is a pleasure, but nothing beats an evening trip to the beach. In July the water in the sea is on the warmer side but still cool enough to be soothing, and best of all is that we have not come across any jellyfish yet this year. (But we have found a lot of small fish and other sea creatures that our son loves to catch.) Later in the summer we can expect to get burned by jellyfish when going into the sea (making us wear body covering swimwear), but for now the sea seems to be showing its most welcoming face.
Thinking about our little son from one year ago, we see the same joy in his face this year, only now combined with a feeling of self confidence in being able to handle the bathing experience without too much of climbing on dad. Soon it is summer holidays for the kindergarten kids and we plan to spend a quite few mornings at the pool. I can image how much more confidently our son will behave this year when trying to learn to put his head under water and practice swimming. We already see that our sea adventures have made an impact in his life – he is now letting water from the shower flow down his face without much caring about it, something that would have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago.
Such is the way of growing up.
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