The Things We Did Last Summer…

A lot and nothing has happened since I’ve last graced the Fortress.  Summer has come and gone.  We’ve had much mom & B fun.  And he spent about a month total gone from me on various trips/grandma visits – the most time ever.  It was hard at times (too quiet!)  and glorious at others.  The times I didn’t miss my momming, I realized after the guilt subsided it was okay to enjoy the freedom.  He was having a fabulous time – why shouldn’t I? Sometimes the freedom to come and go is all I need instead of great plans and adventures.  But those aren’t so bad either!

 

Back to the routine.

Summer’s over and second grade is here.  Lunches were packed for the week, laundry all done, school supplies packed up to go. We’re back to the bedtime routine…that one’s going to be hard for the little night owl to adjust to. I’m dreading seeing what the homework schedule is like for this teacher.

I’m waiting on the edge of my seat to hear about how he found his room and what his class is like. He left this morning with room number he’d written on his hand, so cute. It’s one of those days I wish he was old enough for a cell phone. He’s not, he says he will be at fourteen. So until then I’ll have to wait all day for the details.

I survived a whole week with him gone at the lake. Surprisingly, I got a lot done and really missed him. He wasn’t homesick but was pretty excited for school. Once he settled back in, got out the necessary post-grandma tantrum, sent himself to his room in a stomp, played legos in there longer than any time I would’ve made him stay, and came out renewed – we were good.

 

Leaving on a jet plane

Or in a Tahoe. My baby’s hitting the road for the lake and leaving me to my lonesome. I’m going to miss him like crazy of course. I’ll get tired of entertaining his cat, Mia, when she meows in my face out of confusion or cries at the door. And I’ll hopefully keep busy painting his bathroom and who knows maybe part of his room for a surprise.

Who am I kidding, I’ll be lucky to finish the bathroom.

I’m glad I don’t have to share him. As much as I’m climbing the walls for a free night of nothingness, after a couple days the house seems too quiet and I miss having someone to talk to when we watch TV. I can do a week, but not much more. He’ll be having a great time at the lake, fishing with the guys & playing with his cousin. That reassures me, he won’t miss home a bit!

 

Summer’s in the air

I have a semblance of a tan, I’m reading a teen book, I’m dreaming of coasters.  If I wasn’t listening to someone rambling on about warranty parts in the hall while I stared outside, I could almost forget it’s a workday.

The kid could not have been happier to go to the sitter’s today.  I tried to get him to eat but he was ‘too excited for breakfast’.  There have been very few days since last summer that he’s been there the whole day & you’d think it was Disneyland.  I’m glad, it makes my day a lot easier when he’s rearing to go rather than having to wake him up multiple times and drag him out of the covers.

 

My worst nightmare.

My sitter asked me if I had anywhere else Braiden could go for the summer. 

 

I’d been worried she’d stop sitting since all her kids are in school but she’s taken on a lot of new little ones so I figured we were safe.  But since there’s so many of the boys that are in kindergarten and first grade now she took on the new babies to make up for losing the fulltimers.  Now she’s worried it will be too overwhelming with everyone home for the summer. 

 

What am I supposed to do about that?  I probably looked like a ghost and I could barely sputter an answer, no I don’t have anyone else to watch him.  Or want anyone else to.  She has no idea how much she makes my life easier.  I don’t want to go through the process of finding someone else now for just a couple of months of babysitting.  His friends are there, though one won’t be for the summer anyway since his mom teaches, thank goodness one off the list. 

 

Other than my grandparents I don’t have family who really could watch him all the time and I don’t want that anyway. Daily spoiling and crazy amounts of driving. I really hope some other parents can do it so I don’t have to, don’t know what I’ll do.