Summer Shenanigans

It’s been 2 weeks since my baby started school.  How am I feeling about the change now that some time has passed?

I hate it.

At the grocery store I stare longingly at the moms with kids in their carts.  I even teared up at Target yesterday when the little boy in front of me reached out from the cart for his mom and gave her a tight embrace.  People probably think I’m a creeper.

I totally am.

Jeez, Booney…get over it already.

That’s why I want to reminisce about our summertime shenanigans.  I had a buddy in the summertime and I like having a buddy.  I especially like having two buddies, which is what happened when my niece came to stay for a couple of weeks.  Britta makes me laugh, she plays with my hair, and she teaches me new phrases like, “I’m so triggered,” and “It’s a bop,” and other things that I can’t remember.  I may even have screwed up those two that I just shared.  I’m not entirely sure of the proper usage.

With Britta here, we went to the beach, we saw Ocean’s 8 at the movies, we ate pizza at our favorite restaurant, Panezanellie’s, we had breakfast parties in Eva’s room where we jammed to John Lithgow music, and we overall had a great time.  I love summertime shenanigans with Britta.

Of course, summertime also means Eva gets a turn at Britta’s house in Idaho, where Eva fights with her cousin Spencer, reads all the best books, and swims in the lake.  Eva said to me the day before she went to Idaho, “You know what I like about Aunt Cam’s house?  She has the best toys.”  Indeed she does.  Then Eva prayed that night for Spencer to be nice to her.  But don’t go feeling sorry for Eva that her cousin is mean to her – she’s not nice to him either.

Next time I’ll tell you about our camping shenanigans.  That was fun too!

Kindergarten

Hello?  Anyone out there?  I can’t believe it’s been a month since my last post.  A month!  Please forgive me…I don’t currently have a desk.  Or a kitchen. We embarked on a kitchen remodel nearly a month ago and I have been in shambles ever since.  Right now I am sitting on Eva’s potty stool, hunched over my keyboard, which is sitting on the window seat in Michael’s office. 

It’s very uncomfortable.

And this is why I haven’t posted anything for a month. 

It’s been a long month.  We’ve eaten grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner nearly every night for this whole long month.  And we still don’t have a finish date in sight. 

But let’s not talk about that because it makes me sad.

Let’s talk about Eva’s first day of Kindergarten.  Wait.  That makes me sad also.

Let’s not talk.

Ok, fine. Eva started school on the 11th.  Full day Kindergarten, 5 days a week.  This set-up is a form of governmental torture.  I cried for days leading up to the first day of school.  Eva did not.  I wanted to drive Eva to school on the first day and take pictures of her in the classroom.  Eva did not.  Eva insisted on riding the bus and after weeks of me badgering her and begging her to let me drive her, she adamantly insisted she was riding the bus.

Looking back, I should have lied and told her the bus was not operating on the first day of school.  Why didn’t I think of lying sooner!!!

Part of Eva’s excitement was that she was assigned to the teacher she wanted.  She chanted for 2 days, “Oooh, I hope I get Mrs. Nielsen!”

Hooray!  She got Mrs. Nielsen.

The night before school started, I packed her lunch and put it in the fridge.  Then I cried.  Then I went to bed.  And I cried.

The next morning, I tried not to cry.  But I really wanted to.  Eva did not.

Then she got on the bus and I couldn't breathe.

I watched the bus drive away and made Michael take me to breakfast so I wouldn’t start sobbing.  He agreed to take me to the best place in town.

It was closed.  Naturally.

We went to a different breakfast place and wished we hadn’t.  I was still too sad to go home so we went to watch Mission Impossible instead.  Even though I had just eaten breakfast, I managed to polish off an entire box of Junior Mints, a bag of jelly beans, and half a bag of popcorn at the movies.  Grief makes me hungry.

I counted down the hours all day but I survived.  Eva loved her first day and was bouncing around all evening like a kangaroo on a sugar high.

Fast forward to day 2 of Kindergarten and Eva was not as chipper.  I went in to wake her up and she refused to get out of bed.  She didn’t want to go to school, she wanted to stay home and sleep. 

It took all of my strength not to holler, “Oh, thank goodness!  Don’t ever go to school again!  Please stay home with me forever!”

I was responsible and made her go to school.  She was happy about it as we made our way to the bus stop.  And she had another successful day at school.  But I hated every minute of her absence on day 2.  I was lonely.  Oh, so lonely.

When I met her at the bus stop after school on day 2, Eva announced that she would no longer be riding the bus.  “I have 4 reasons,” she said.  They are:

1. No one ever stops yelling

2. It’s so noisy

3. The bus takes a long time to leave because you have to wait for everyone to get on

4. It smells stinky

Well, who can argue with such legitimate reasons?  So now I’m driving her to school.  I’m actually ok with this arrangement because it buys me 20 extra minutes in the morning.

Just enough time to eat a box of Junior Mints and a bag of jelly beans.