Summer's Over & School Days Are Here Again

Just when you thought you couldn't take anymore nights of wanting to stay up until midnight or later playing video games, endless days at the pool, sleepovers, and day camps for every sport & recreation imaginable, the first day of school is here! That's right, god save your sanity and house that hasn't been properly cleaned since May. I don't know about you, but for me the first days of a new school year are bittersweet. While I am regaining some semblance of peace, organization and routine in my life, it becomes painfully obvious my baby is inching farther and farther away from actually being one.

When summer began my son, JT, was so excited. He is an extremely bright & precocious six year old ball of goofiness. He loves to explore, travel and learn new things. He had just finished his kindergarten year, and his new school year seemed to him to be a thousand months away. While I love this child more than fresh homemade chocolate chip cookies topped with vanilla ice cream, new shoes (which is a big deal, because I'm a shoe freak), and pretty much everything of importance in life, he wears me out! And, that is an understatement. I'm sure if you have a child this age, you understand where I am coming from. If you don't, hopefully I can paint a vivid picture for you. It got to the point where I thought if he badgered me with one more line of questions on topics completely irrelevant & obscure, I was going to run down my street stark naked pulling my hair out. I'm sure my neighbors would have been thrilled, and had something really interesting to talk about at the neighborhood Fourth of July parade & firework extravaganza. Being with the boy day in and day out was driving me bonkers!

Then one day while we were playing Connect 4, JT asked me what I would do if he were to die. He had become inquisitive about death, after his father's aunt passed away in the spring. I was taken aback, even though the randomness was par for the course with him. After answering that question and the seventeen that followed, I began to think about how quickly the time was passing. Probably because I couldn't believe my little boy asked me such a grown up question. Where had the time gone? How could I have been so annoyed by the summer? Normally all it takes are little epiphanies such as that day to make us realize how fast we are going in this life. At least it does for me. From that moment on, I had a whole new outlook on the summer, and a new goal I really wanted to do my best to attain. Not like, "I am going to start exercising more", or "I'm going to stop eating chocolate chip cookies at 10 o'clock at night before bed." I wanted to be able to say, I set my sights on this and achieved it. I wanted to slow down and actually enjoy my time with my friends and family. Gone were the days of over planning, and feeling like I had to cram as much into my day as possible. This was not only applicable to me, but to JT. It was not so long ago I held him in my arms, and rocked him to sleep. Now, if I try to pick him up, I pull my back out. And, that is not an exaggeration. I have a bad back, and the boy is as big as me. If it seemed like yesterday that I was changing his diaper, what was tomorrow going to be like? I envision him graduating from high school, and getting into all kinds of trouble the summer before his freshman year of college. I don't want to look back and say, "I wish I would have taken advantage of the summers when he was younger."

So, after Connect 4, I took a nap with my son. Sleeping in the middle of the day? I know, I could have been washing clothes, cleaning the bathroom, making my grocery list, making dinner, working in the yard, cleaning out my car, or finishing my project for work. But, I chose to lie down under the cool breeze of the ceiling fan in the middle of the afternoon, and sleep snuggled up to JT. And, when we woke up, he looked at me and told me he had the best day. Yesterday morning, I walked him to his first day of the first grade, hugged him (because kissing is completely out of the question in front of his friends), and went home and cleaned my house. I can't believe he won't kiss me in front of his friends! Thank goodness for summers.