Naked in the Summertime

Where has this summer gone? I can't believe it is already July 10th. Last night, I had an impromptu summer party at my house with some friends and their kids. The kids had a blast running around the back yard, screaming and yelling, riding bikes and trikes, and chasing one another. At some point during the evening, shirts started coming off...the children, not the adults, of course. By the end of the night, all of the kids, boys AND girls, had taken their shirts off and were enjoying the warm summer air on their skin. Watching them run around topless, I was struck by how free and jubilant they looked. Our little pale, pasty, Minnesotan children enjoying a hot summer night. It was well past their bedtimes, but I did not care. In Minnesota, the kids spend so much of the year trapped in the house. It's really quite unfair that they have so little time to be free and naked and joyously juvenile. It's like they are different children in the summer. They run. They play. They laugh. They scream. They fall into bed exhausted, but grinning ear to ear. It's a wonderful sight to behold. As far as I am concerned, bedtime can take a flying leap in the summertime. I am going to let my kids be kids and soak every drop of vitamin D they can get while the getting is good. The day is very quickly approaching when the sun will disappear over the horizon WAY too early in the day and our kids will be bundled up in coats and hats and gloves and scarves and boots. So for the time being...let them run naked. Let the sun drench their little bodies with warmth.

If it were not for the threat of arrest, I would be right out there with them!