Sunday Son Spectacular!!!

Waking up on a Sunday morning such as today is pure joy!!! I have waited for these Sunday mornings for the past two years and the past two Sundays have been glorious. I have changed my exercise schedule so I will be home on Sundays and this does give new meaning to “family time”. Our family situation could not be any better and this includes the housing situation as well. The house we are living in is very similar in so many ways to our previous house both in terms of location and setup of the home. There are some days where I have to remind myself we are in a new home because the master bedrooms are very similar. Now waking up on a beautiful Sunday morning and having my wife turn the television on to CBS’ “Sunday Morning” show is wonderful.

My son made his usual appearance crawling into bed with us and instead of nudging his way in between my wife and me he purposely positioned himself next to me away from my wife. Today would be a day we would spend together and my wife would spend it with my daughter. My son had been questioning me since yesterday as to what we would do today and my answer was “will see?” Earlier in the week I had mentioned about possibly attending a major league baseball game to my son who was very much interested. However; after further research even with deep discounted tickets the cost was much too prohibitive.

I did receive an email for tickets to a Los Angeles Dodger game that were discounted 50% and did think about attending. I even researched the “all you can eat” ticket because my son loves baseball and he also loves to eat. This would have worked out for my son but he would have had to sit in this section by himself because the “all you can eat” would not have worked out for me. I think peanuts were the only food I would eat and even though my son has a voracious appetite I doubt he could eat enough to justify the ticket cost. I started to think how much everything would cost and it certainly didn’t make sense. I broke this news to my son yesterday and he was okay with it as long as we were going to do something.

That something in his mind was playing golf. He started last night asking me and continued the first thing this morning. I have enjoyed taking both my daughter and son golfing in the past but usually those were very slow times for the golf course near our house and not on a weekend day. Sundays are busy days for most golf courses even in this economy and I thought getting out today would be difficult at a reasonable. I assured my son I would check on the internet if there were any tee times available and he wanted me to check as soon as he entered the room.

I was able to buy a few hours before checking the internet and in the mean time we had a very lovely family breakfast minus my daughter. My daughter is well on her way becoming a teenage because as much as my son loves to eat my daughter loves to sleep. She has been going to sleep much later than she should which does make her sleep longer in the morning. This morning she was fast asleep as the three us had breakfast. My wife wanted to wake her up and with my “libertarian” approach I convinced to let our daughter sleep as long as she wanted. My wife gave in and woke her up because it was getting much too late to be sleeping.

As my wife went to wake up our daughter I did check the internet for some tee times and as I suspected I couldn’t find any discounted rates. This seemed to disappoint my son; however; I did find a very reasonable rate at a local “executive” style golf course which would be perfect for taking my son. He was very happy and wanted to leave the house right then and there even though the tee time wasn’t for another two hours. Once again I was able to calm my son down and we departed the house an hour later.

We arrived at the golf course and my son maintained his wonderful enthusiasm. He did ask me a peculiar question as we drove to the golf course. He wanted to know if we would “pass out” playing golf because it was so hot. It really wasn’t that hot with the temperature in the 90’s and I have played in much worse conditions which I explained to my son and the fact that he would need to drink a great deal of water. I’m not sure where this question came from and lately I have noticed many more “deep” inquiries from my son as opposed to two years ago.

The two years has given my son a deeper maturity and yes, he is only seven years old but there seems to be a big difference in him being 7 as opposed to 5. I love these interactions and I loved the fact that I was on a golf course with my son. My son has a much better athletic ability than I had at his age and for that matter he has much better athletic ability I have at my current age!!! I made it a point to myself to ensure my son would have fun all day long and he had a great time. There wasn’t anybody on the course in the first ten holes so I let my son take as many swings as he needed. I even let him drive the golf cart which was a highlight for my son.

I was able to swing the golf club and on one hole I made an errant shot much to my dismay. I expressed my dismay and my son rightfully said, “Dad it is only a game!” Wow he is so right and he has such a great attitude. On one hole my son made a very good swing but the ball went right into the lake and he said, “I’m not mad, oh well”. I was blown away by these two comments and this is a far cry from his sister who constantly beats herself up when she does something wrong. My daughter is very competitive and I thought my son had shown those same competitive juices the last time we played golf but he has changed for the better. What a great child he is and he did remind me it was all about having fun.

We had a wonderful day on the golf course and the ladies in the family had a wonderful day shopping for school supplies. I thought the golf game would take much longer than it did but we were home well before the Sunday evening Gamblers Anonymous meeting. My wife and daughter weren’t home and I took my son to the meeting so my wife didn’t have to hurry home. My son didn’t actually attend the meeting; he stayed in my office and passed the time on the computer. I have always been blessed with an exceptional family and I am finally appreciating every moment. It was a great day!!