Little P, my little pea.
I could stay here on the sand with you until the sun goes down.
You ran down Woods Parade arms wide open, your podgy legs speeding up until it looked like you were about to topple over, and then you stopped in your tracks, put your finger in your mouth and furrowed your brow;
"What's wrong P?" I asked.
"Yaya" you said.
"Amaya's at preschool, we'll get her soon. Let's go to the beach and play in the sand".
Holding the bucket with one hand and my hand in your other you waddled down the hill for....a few seconds before you turned to me and said;
"Cuggle?"
That means "Cuddle?"
You are Joy.
We sat down on the sand and I took off your shoes. Your toes touched the sand and you wriggled and buried them;
"Shall I take mine off too?"
I took off my trainers and socks and we dug holes in the sand and played hide and seek with our feet.
"Toooooooooes, wh'are youuuuu? Here they are toes!"
You are Present.
You picked up a shell and put it in the bucket. We usually use that bucket to wash your hair in the bath, but before it was a bath bucket it was a huge tub of peanut M&Ms bought by your Papa, not by me because I don't like peanut M&Ms unless I'm at the movies and there's no other chocolate option, and your sister doesn't like them either because she's allergic to peanuts. You'll try them one day and can make up your own mind. When Papa finished the tub of M&Ms it became the hair washing bath bucket. That's the story of the bucket which we grabbed on the way out of the house today because I thought you'd like to play with it at the beach, and we couldn't get into the garage to get the beach buckets because Papa took the garage key to work. There are no differences between the bath buckets and beach buckets, apart from one being called "bath" bucket and the other "beach" bucket. These are labels little P. People like to label things.
We hunted for more shells to put in the bucket and found a few small purple ones and a black pebble.
You are Life.
I felt stiff in my right hip so twisted my body to one side, and then the other. The sun felt warm on my back and I wanted to do more stretching. I looked out to sea as I stood beneath the blue sky with the warmth of the sun on my face and my toes in the sand accompanied by you, my ray of sunshine. Happiness is this moment. I took off my hoodie and lay it over my bag, I then took off my sunglasses and placed them on top of my hoodie which lay over my bag.
You are Happiness.
Standing up tall I bent forward, knees slightly bent, legs slightly apart and touched the sand with my fingertips.
"Can you do this P?"
You can. The golden tips of your hair touched the sand and you opened your arms out to your side, wide, hugging the world. Then we stood up straight and smiled.
You are Beauty.
"Mummy come!" You took my hand.
We walked to the water's edge and looked. You looked at the water and at your world, and I looked at you then at the water and then my world.
"Can you see the red boat P?" A man rowed a red boat towards the shore. Row Row Row.
"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" I twirled you around and around and around until you collapsed into the wet sand;
"More mummy" So I did more and you laughed and laughed and showed me your teeth and your snotty nose;
"More mummy!"
"No more P, let's take off your leggings. They're wet".
I picked you up and turned you upside down and you stretched your arms long so your fingers skimmed the water.
You are You.
