Summer

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 4^th 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.