Parenting » Stop, Drop and Blog

Goodbye, Summer

Aug 312010

I feel like a petulant teenager on the night before school.

I don’t want summer to be over. I don’t want summer to be over. I don’t want summer to be over.

Granted, it’s still seasonally summer, and the temperatures agree. 93 degrees is no fall-like day. Despite what the mercury says, our summer ends tonight. Tomorrow both boys go back to school.

BigBrother will head downstairs to the Big Kids Class, an air of confidence about him that comes from having two years of preschool already under his belt and the knowledge that he is almost five. Five is apparently a magical number and being said age in preschool is like being a senior in high school. He is Big News.

LittleBrother will head upstairs for the first time, a bit more tentatively than his older brother. This will be the first time that LittleBrother does anything more than hang out with mommy and daddy without his brother’s presence. I have no reason to believe that he won’t be okay, though he did admit that he was scared the other day before we made our way to his classroom for orientation. I think once he saw the toys, including two classic Buzz Lightyears, he forgot to be afraid. I wish it was that easy for me.

After I drop the boys off at school, I’ll likely meet my friends for coffee — a weekly treat during the school year — instead of packing away our summer. I still need to wash the bathing suits from vacation. They’ve already been washed once, but they dried on the deck railing of our beach house and they smell like sunshine and ocean breeze. I keep thinking that if I never wash out that smell, I’ll feel less forlorn during those long winter months where sunshine and warmth are at a premium.

We have enjoyed ourselves so much this summer, from bubbles to water guns to camp to the beach to geocaching to relaxing. FireDad and I got to fully enjoy the deck that we built last summer. I am bummed that it is over for us. We are no longer free to travel as we have all summer long. We are tied down by schedules that are not our own. When I think that next summer will be even shorter thanks to the realities of kindergarten, well, I get even more upset. So I won’t think that way.

I will instead work on our annual beach trip photo book when I’m not working. And reminisce about the happy times. But not too much. Something tells me that the next season of our lives will bring some fun, too.

How could it not?

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[Tomorrow we'll be in a rush. Tell me what you do during the Breakfast Squeeze for a chance at $100.]

Brothers on Vacation

Parenting, Photography 1 Response »

Aug 272010

Brothers at the Beach

Brother at the Pier

They look so much older than last year. To go along with that, they’re also louder than last year. And they eat more than last year. And they stay up later than last year. But they still wake up just as early. Yay.

At least they’re just as cute, if not even more so.

Children of the Corn (or In It...)

Parenting, Photography 10 Responses »

Aug 172010

I remember summers as a child with a fond, warm heart. I don’t remember the rainy, stuck-inside days. Or days that I chose to stay inside to play with toys. What I remember most about those summers is the constant outdoors. The swinging. The chasing of birds and bunnies. The hide and seek. The swimming in the creek and eventually the above ground pool.

The running through Grandpa’s corn in the garden.

I am thrilled that the boys get to have the same experience in their great-grandfather’s cornfield as well. We spent some time at FireDad’s grandparents’ house while FireDad helped Gramps with some outdoor tasks. I took the opportunity to let them run up and down the rows.

Corn Fields

The laughter coming from deep inside the rows made my heart warmer than the sun beating down on us. It also made me think of my days back on The Farm, the carefree summers I spent outdoors with various members of my family. I may love the city, but I also love the wide open spaces in our lives. I love their blatant enthusiasm for all things outdoor, even as much as they love technology. I know my Papau would be proud to know that the boys spent time running back and forth, getting corn stalk scratches and generally embracing the land.

Corn Fields

I hope that someday these two wild and crazy (and loud) boys can look back on some of the things we do in the summer with the same sort of happy nostalgia that I do. Maybe they won’t remember all of this summer: our first summer of geocaching, many fishing trips, camping, carnival rides, playing in the park, swimming and, yes, the cornfield. But I will remember them.

I also hope I will remember how bright the sun was…

Corn Fields

…and how LittleBrother — my moon spotter — found the moon before any of us did. (See small white spot in right hand side of photo.)

Corn Fields

Lucky, lucky children in the corn.

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[What are you doing with your last two weeks of summer (or...less)? Tell me and win $100!]

Helicopter Landing

Parenting, Photography 10 Responses »

Aug 162010

I tried something new at the playground. I landed my helicopter and sat on a bench.

The boys ran by. Sometimes they were tough.

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Sometimes they were smiley.

park2

Sometimes they chased each other too quickly up the steps. LittleBrother tripped on his own feet and fell in some mulch. BigBrother climbed up a piece of the toy that made my heart skip a beat with fear. I may have told BigBrother to let LittleBrother also be Spiderman and thus be on the same team. I may have also let out the occasional “be careful” or “stop shrieking.”

But, unlike in previous years, I sat still. In fact, I did something I’ve wanted to do at the playground for…ever.

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