Calamity

Yesterday I pulled my daughter’s baby doll out of a port-a-potty pit.  Then we bought a smoothie from a vendor who wouldn’t give me an extra cup (to split the smoothie) and didn’t have any lids.  That was the worst part of my evening.

Sometimes a Mud Puddle Can Save Your Life

According to family lore, my grandfather’s brother drowned in a mud puddle when he was three.  After my aunt did some research, she discovered that it was really a small stream or ditch that ran in front of their house.  Nevertheless, I grew up being told that even a little mud puddle can be dangerous.

I let my kids play in mud puddles.  After a good rain, a delicious mud puddle forms at the end of our parking lot, along the edge of the yard where my kids kick their soccer ball.  This mud puddle has saved my life more than once.  The kids can play in it for hours.  Of course they are filthy when I call them in, but I’ll trade fifteen minutes to give them a bath for two hours of them being occupied.

Last summer our neighbor caught us playing in the mud puddle.  He carefully steered his eighteen-month-old son clear of my children’s merry mess making and led him into the grass to push his dump truck around.  This year I caught the neighbors playing in the mud puddle.  The little boy was not very dirty, but he’ll learn.  His dad told me, “Last year when we saw you playing in the puddle I thought you were so hard core.”  He’s learning, too, I guess.

I hope my kids grow up with happy memories of splashing in that mud puddle on a summer afternoon.  They’ll never know that I was nearly bored to death of riding bikes, swinging on swings, and climbing trees and how I prayed for rain.

Summer Plans

Luisa’s mom is a friend and colleague of my husband.  We met her and her husband at the University of Notre Dame.  Now they live in Brazil.  Six summers ago Luisa’s mom came here to collaborate with my husband as a “visiting researcher.”  She brought Luisa with her, and Luisa spent her days with us, my five-month-old son and me.

Before Luisa came I made a list of things we could do together.  I wasn’t used to entertaining a seven-year-old, and I wanted to be prepared.  We did projects at home:  baking cookies, sewing dresses for her Barbie dolls, making crafts.  I even bought a book of crafts ideas for us to try.  We also went on outings:  to the pool, to the park, on a nature walk, to the zoo.  She read books or watched t.v. when I needed to tend to the baby.  Fortunately her mom didn’t mind how much t.v. she watched;  some days my son needed lots of attention.  Despite that, we had a lot of fun together that summer.  I remember Luisa very fondly.

Now I have a six-year-old to entertain for the summer.  I’ve made a list of things we can do together.  On Mondays and Tuesdays, when my daughter is home from preschool, the three of us can go to different parks, go on picnics, ride our bikes to the ice cream shop, go swimming, go on a hike, go downtown to play in the fountain, go to the mall.  On Thursdays my son and I will go to the library.  I will sign him up for the summer reading program.  On Fridays he and I will get groceries.  Our car needs an oil change soon.  He has a dentist appointment in July.  Also, I will let the kids watch t.v. (an hour a day).

I bought a basketball and a soccer net.  (We already have a soccer ball, but it doesn’t work very well for shooting hoops.)  I bought checkers and Chinese checkers and new markers, and we got a dozen books from the school end-of-the-year give-away.  We will have a lot of fun together this summer.  I have a plan.

A Stay-at-Home Mom Goes Back to Work

Today my son graduated from kindergarten.  Now he will have the whole summer off before school resumes in the fall.  For me, it’s back to work.  I have stayed home with my kids since my son was born, but this year my kids hardly stayed home with me.  My son was in school five days a week, and my four-year-old daughter was in preschool three days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  I’ve been basically out of a job since last September.  But beginning next week, my son will be home with me every day, except for two weeks of summer camp.  I will be a full-time mom again.

It will just be my son and me most days this summer.  My daughter will still go to preschool, which continues year-round.  My son and I haven’t spent whole days alone together since he was a baby.  I expect we will do all the same things we did then—get groceries, go the park, go the library.  This year he can sign up for summer reading.  The theme is “One World, Many Stories.”  My summer project is this blog.

Summer reading, basketball, and riding bikes will fill my time.  The housework will suffer; the laundry will pile up.  We’ll eat out more often.  Tomorrow I go to work.