Summer

It is here. Does anyone else think that summer is not as fun with young kids as it was when we were in school? I mean, when I was younger summer was all about sleeping in and doing nothing all day and getting a tan and staying up late. It rocked. With young kids, not so much.

(thrown in for good measure are some pictures are my daughter and her new baby. You can read about her here.)

They don't sleep in. You don't want to sit around and do nothing all day because that is not good for them. Getting a tan for mommy requires dealing with kids and sunscreen and swim diapers and tiny bathing suits and floaties and more. It is virtually impossible to work on a tan with little ones. Unless you have a nanny present and I don't. And as for staying up late. If you mean staying up late to clean house and play on facebook then yes, I do that.

Last year was my daughter's first year at a preschool program. It was my first experience with getting a "real" break from her during the day. It was great for both of us. Then the last day of school came. I was actually looking forward to summer. To an empty calendar when we didn't have to get up and be anywhere. It only took about a week into summer for me to realize that an empty summer calendar is bad. Really really bad. So, I raced around and lucked into some spots for summer activities.

This year, I knew what to expect. I have been dreading the last day of school since about Christmas time. The closer I got the sadder it made me. (Now let me interject here and make sure that you know that I love spending time with my daughter. That is not the problem. It is coming up with things appropriate and eductational and fun for my daughter to do that scares me. I am not a teacher and do not have a bone of that type of creativity in me. I love having time with her every day. That is why I am a stay-at-home mom however, a schedule and planned activities are best for both of us). Back to the story....

The closer we got to summer the more sad I became. I wanted to make sure that we were ready to go with activities so I started signing up for stuff the minute I was able to. We have this week off and then we start swim lessons, music class, VBS, one session of summer school and lots and lots of playdates. Don't worry, we still have free days set aside for lounging and errands but our calendar is looking pretty good. Yes, the calendar looks good for summer but it is certainly not the same type of summer that it was as a kid.