Watermelon & Garden Baths

childhood

Nov 23

Watermelon is a big hit in our household. Noah devours up each slice of watermelon so cleanly, that sometimes we need to tell him to stop as he starts to bite into the rind. “I can eat right till the green part Daddy!” he tells me. Little did I know that it is in fact true - a reminder that our children can always still teach us a thing or two. Sophie has too come on board the watermelon train, jumping excitedly every time she sees me preparing to cut a watermelon.

The thing about watermelon and young children is that it can be quite a messy affair - or at least the way my children inhale it. Collars get soaked with residue juice, hands are dripping wet, cheeks are red from smushing one’s face into each slice and somehow or other, pieces of clothing get so wet that it has to be removed layer by layer, sometimes even before the whole watermelon eating affair has finished.

So on this particular warm summer’s day, we decide that it would be good to eat watermelon in the garden followed by a bath straight away, in an effort to kill two birds at a time. The kids both thoroughly enjoy this, especially Noah, who got his shirt so drenched with watermelon juice that we had to take it off and we ended up putting a tea towel around his neck, following which he then proceeded to show us his “happy watermelon dance” while being half naked with a tea towel for a makeshift bib.

With not a watermelon left in sight, it’s time to wash the kids down. Noah puts on his older sibling hat, excitedly introducing Sophie to having a bath outdoors, something he has grown accustomed to over last summer. “Mei mei! Bath outside? You want? Yes?” She smiles excitedly, probably not really understanding the question but mirroring her older brother’s excitement. The bath barely fits them both and there’s a feeling of joy tangled in with sadness as we whisper to each other that they are growing up so fast and this is quite possibility the last time they can fit in this tub together.