Operation: Awesome Summer

Summer has officially begun and Beezer and I are ready. Of course, she doesn’t actually know what summer is, but as long as we are doing fun stuff, she is excited. Now, as a teacher, I have been lucky enough to extend the idea of summer into adulthood. But, the truth is, summer as an adult is not quite the same as summer as a kid. Then, we would spend every day sleeping late, lounging poolside, planning outings to the mall or an upcoming carnival. As a grown-up, summer begins with the promise of completing all the tasks you didn’t have time to work on during the school year, and ends with an overwhelming self-loathing at not having completed said projects. Needless to say, I am prone to what some might refer to as the “summer blues.” This feeling stems from my assumption that every day of summer vacation should either be A) incredibly productive, or B) super fun. And yet despite my desire to make this happen, a heat-induced, alone-in-the-house-all-day kind of lethargy takes over and I inevitably slide into a summer slump.

Juxtapose all this with a little something I like to call “the beezer.” This is my second summer as a mom and in case you don’t remember, last summer was THE WORST SUMMER EVER! Yes, I said it. My first summer as a mom was awful. Go ahead and judge me, but it is the truth. Perhaps you have forgotten that as far as my research has shown, I had the most difficult baby on the planet. Our summer days consisted of crying, nursing, walking around the block, more nursing, not sleeping, pumping, and crying some more. Basically, last summer sucked.

So, you can imagine my silent trepidation as the school year came to an end and flashbacks to last summer whirled through my head. I kept trying to remind myself: she’s not a baby anymore, but it was still hard to imagine how the two of us were going to spend all day every day together and not go crazy. This girl is used to spending her days playing with her friends, making art projects, dancing and singing at circle time. I began wondering how I’d ever compete!

In light of all of this, I decided that this summer needs to start off with a new plan. A “Super Summer Fun” plan if you will. I want to make a promise to myself to not give in to the slump. I don’t have it all worked out yet, but here are some of the features of the plan so far:

1. Exercise at least five days a week (which always makes me feel unslumpish)

2. On Thursdays and Fridays when Ella goes to daycare (go ahead- keep judging me, I don’t care), I will do something just for me like go to the gym, have lunch with a friend, go for a hike, watch an episode of True Blood, whatever.

3. Do fun stuff with Beezer every day.

I think the third task is the most important, but I’m not exactly sure what that “fun stuff” is going to be. Michael suggested the Beardsley Zoo and the Maritime museum. I’m also thinking about hiking up to the castle at Sleeping Giant, walking around downtown, hitting up some library circle times, and maybe even the Children’s Museum in Bristol. I think the most important thing will be to get out of the house, which isn’t always easy, but definitely makes both of us much happier, even if we just go swimming at Wendy’s or Kristy’s, or go for a little hike on the Blue Trail using my new toddler backpack (more on that in a later post).

I’d love to hear some more suggestions for little kid fun in Southern Connecticut if you’ve got em as well as some companions if you’re around. I’m on a mission this year, and I’ll take all the help I can get.

Operation Awesome Summer is underway!