We are living the Charles Dickens life over here. You know
the one. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…. It was the
spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
It’s a little hard to believe that people staying home with
kids for the summer, or better yet, finding things to do with their kids have
not yet spear-headed the movement to ensure our little darlings can attend a
blessed year-round school. I’m not a complete monster, I would allow a three
week break in July!
It has been mostly great because we have spent nearly every
waking minute together for over 60 straight days now. This is also why I
despair (obviously).
Seth does not have a positive track record with summer, or
really any kind of school breaks (or maybe change in general?). We tried to mix
it up this year and signed him up for a couple different camps with the intent
to try and keep him busy and in a good routine. He promptly got himself kicked
out of the first day camp. Enter camp two, where he lasted slightly longer than
one day before getting the boot. He either doesn’t like or doesn’t understand
most kids so he rarely plays with others. He is also very narrow in his scope
of what he is interested, thus doesn’t have many things he likes to play or do.
Idle time is not his friend, but he surprised everyone (probably me most of
all) by actively trying to find things to do and keep himself busy this summer.
Of course this means our house no longer has any tape, staples, paper, or
boxes, but this seems a small price to pay.
Ollie recently has developed some tendencies that make me
think we might be raising a foodie. This is both darling (“mom, I think I’m in
the mood for some sushi” or “mom, have we ever tried Vietnamese food? I’d sure
like to!”) and exasperating (“well…. I guess I’ll eat it. But I think this is only like the fifth or
sixth best barbeque sandwich I’ve ever had, definitely not as good as….”). He
also loves to watch Chopped and Cupcake Wars and wants to try and cook new
recipes frequently. He loves his friends and is happiest with lots of people on
the docket, but also can be a huge couch potato and would watch Harry Potter
movies every day if I let him. He loves to ride his bike, to swim, and will go
for a jog with me.
Nolan has grown and changed most significantly this summer.
Currently his favorite response to what I say is “why?” complete with palms up
and a shoulder shrug. We started working on potty training sometime during with
week of 4th of July and he has done so well. He wants to ride his
little bike with training wheels multiple times of day, and is no longer afraid
of dogs. We kept Bonnie for a few days recently and Noey was in heaven. He
really loved palling around with her. He talks up a storm and is always looking
for “my N” in the books we read. He is obstinate and stubborn, but what
two-year old isn’t? But he is cute and hilarious and cracks us up every day.
I love these crazy boys, but boy oh boy am I ready for August 15th. But I'll be honest. I was ready for August 15th the second week of June.
