What's S'Happening with the Stockwells: Following My Footsteps

Columbus Day weekend is always a bittersweet favorite of mine. We gather with family for one last hurrah at the lake, working together to shutter the cabins, pull out the docks, and put the compound to bed for the winter. We socialize while we work, catching up on back-to-school news and fall happenings, and then we say goodbye for seven long months. After a summer of togetherness and community, it is always a hard goodbye. That's the bitter part.

The sweet part is all the fun that goes on while we're there, different fun than the fun we have all summer. The lake is too cold for swimming now (although that did not stop our boys from proving us wrong), the beach less appealing. So catching up happens around the fire, on walks through the woods, while scraping paint off the cabins, or over a cup of chili (or twenty) at the annual Waterford chili cookoff.

The chili cookoff, which brings the whole community out to sample a couple dozen different varieties of chili, also happens to coincide with one of my favorite (or least favorite, if you ask me right after I've finished) road races of the year - the Waterford Fall Foliage 5k and Fun Run. This is by far the most challenging 5k I run, but my 50 or so cheerleaders make it a little bit easier. Both boys decided to join me this year and participated in the 1-mile fun run, also particularly challenging for them. To be honest, we were a bit skeptical about allowing Adam to run, but he insisted he could do it, and Ethan promised he would stay with him the whole way. So off they went (the thing about a mile is that you actually lose sight of your kids for awhile, which is kind of scary) and we waited. It took Ethan well over 15 minutes to finish last year, so we were expecting it to be awhile, when all of a sudden...there he was! We were just starting to disparage his inability to keep his promise when we noticed Ethan pause and look backwards to be sure Adam was there, and sure enough, he was just a few steps behind. Both boys finished strong and smiling (though they both started to run to us before they realized they still had to finish), and I was bursting with pride. Bursting.

And that proud smile did not soon leave my face, as I replayed the scene of my strong little runners over and over in my head. Soon it was time for my own race, and that vision of my boys kept resurfacing, giving me a little extra spring in my step, and I thought, why? Why am I so gosh darn proud of them for a dinky little road race? Why does this make me so happy? So much happier even than Ethan scoring a soccer goal, or Adam learning to ride his bike? And while all up in my head, like I so often am as I run, it hit me - they are trying to be like me. They are emulating ME. I don't have anyone trying on my shoes, or sitting on the bathroom counter watching me put on my makeup and asking me to do hers too. Sure, I've painted the boys' nails a few times, by they don't really care. They don't want their hair up in a knot, or to try on my clothes, or to play with my stuff. But they do want to run. And the selfish (vain?) little part of me that sometimes wishes that someone around here wanted to grow up to be "just like Mommy" loves that. Because I now realize that my boys do want to grow up to be like Mommy. And that feels good.

While the grown-ups celebrated our half-marathon run last weekend, the boys ran and ran around our house, dozens of times each. Ethan is actually quite sure that he holds the Guinness record for the fastest ten laps around a house (three minutes and change), because that's what his Uncle Pauly told him, and how could his uncle ever tell an untruth? And even though they said they were "only in it for the Gatorade" (Ethan's words) on Sunday, I am hopeful these boys keep running. I may not have a shopping buddy or someone who will go get mani-pedis with me (who am I kidding - Ethan is game on both accounts), but two running partners...oh, if I should only be so lucky.