This Suit Needs A Manual

Picking out a bathing suit for Ava this week reminded me of a cute story.

We were in South Carolina with the Tabasso family two summers ago. One day, Melissa and I decided to go out to lunch together and leave the kids with the husbands. The guys were going to take the kids to the pool while we were gone.

After our amazing lunch, Melissa's cell phone rang. Eric was calling to ask me to give him directions over the phone on how to do up the back of Ava's bathing suit top.

If I haven't mentioned yet, little girl bathing suits kill me. I search high and low to find Ava's bathing suit each year. One of her suits from the summer of 2007 was a Frankie and Daisy skirted bikini. The back of the bikini top was a veritable maze of straps and loops.

Apparently, Eric was having a hard time figuring it out. He had even called Michael in to get his opinion, and Michael tried his hand at it. Michael got on the phone with Melissa after Eric and I were finished talking, and he tried to take directions as well, but it just wasn't happening. Now, all of this was done very casually and quietly, as both Eric and Michael are super respectful of Ava's sensitivities. Even on the phone, they both were speaking very quietly and calmly, so as not to freak Ava out with the attention.

Melissa and I spent the rest of the drive back bawling our eyes out over the image in our heads. These two big tough manly men conferring with each other on how to gently lace up little Ava's bikini top, using their big old man hands to try to get the little straps through the little loops in the proper pattern, caring so much about getting it right for her, all the while keeping in the forefront of their minds her sensitivity to attention....


Melissa and I have lucky daughters.

(We solved the problem by just telling them to get her one-piece bathing suit. We could feel their relief through the airwaves.)