Summer's End

This summer has suddenly slipped through my fingers. It has been great at moments, trying at others. But my heart is still stolen by these little boys who demand so much yet give me so much at the same time. How could my heart not be stolen by this?:

We are getting very close to a time when they all play together. Nate sits up on his own these days, and is reaching for things but hasn't yet figured out how to actually move. When this happens, my life will simultaneously become easier and harder: I'll have to watch his every move, but he'll be able to entertain himself better and interact with Sam and Levi more.

All the kids have become affectionate of late. Kisses abound. Not good when we have germs. But I'll take it, especially since I'd trade them kissing each other for hitting each other any day (I know that's coming, so I'll enjoy it while it lasts!)

We all got sick about 10 days ago. It was some sort of stealth sinus thing, where you'd wake up in the night and feel all stuffy, even head-achy, but there wasn't much nose blowing or coughing, etc. Levi ended up having the worse symptoms, and ended up with conjunctivitis and two ear infections.

I don't think I even realized I had it, except that my ears seemed stuffy and I felt run down. I thought it was just sleep deprivation from helping the kids during the night, as none of them were sleeping very well. But now that I'm better I can see how it effected my energy level.

Our sickness intersected with Mike's first few days of activities back on campus. This was unfortunate, since he was very busy and gone a lot, and we needed to stay close to home so that everyone got their naps and we didn't spread the wealth, I mean germs too much. That meant we did a lot of this:

Ugh. Sam was even bored with TV after a couple of days. So I started making a real effort to change things, and the pst couple of days we've had lots of creative play.

And a random fact about Levi: He can fall asleep anywhere, if it is between 11 and 12 am and his is riding in a stroller or car. He is helpless.

Notice the half-eaten cracker.

The thing I'll miss most about summer is all of the fabulous family time. Although it makes more work to have Sam home, he is a sweet heart and loves to be home as much as I love having him here. And there's no trading having the evenings and weekends and vacations with Mike. We feel renewed as a couple and as a family, I think.

School starts for Sam on Monday. I am both relieved and melancholy. There goes another summer of endless hours to spend with my sweet boy who is growing up so quickly. He feels the same way. Yesterday he was not himself: pushing the envelope, moody, short-tempered. I asked him what was wrong, and guessed out loud that maybe he didn't want to start school. (A big hint was that this behavior began immediately when I got home from his kindergarten orientation.) He broke down and said, "I'm going to miss you!" Ugh. Break my heart, why don't ya?

But he's going to love it. And so am I. I think it's funny how much I looked forward to the freedom of summer, and now am so looking forward to the structure of the school year.