I had last week off from work and it wasn’t relaxing enough. My summer has been fine, but I was literally driving into work the other morning and thought to myself, If I die today, my last summer was a pretty lame one. What a bummer. Morbid, I know, but a little reality check isn’t so bad every once in a while. Perhaps this will motivate me to make my fall even better.
It was actually rather chilly much of the summer, and I made it to none of the summery things that I tend to try to do every year while the weather is fleeting; festivals, the SoWa market, outdoor movies and performances. To be clear, my summer was fine. I saw friends and family, and it wasn’t too blazing hot. I was healthy all summer, and I wasn’t dealing with any sadness like I was a year ago. Also, I went swimming IN THE OCEAN! I went with Mom while at Scott’s End a few weekends ago. My Mom laughed as I noted that swimming actually required work for me, and that she is my US Coast Guard approved floatation device. Mom tells me she has always floated well, even as a kid. Me? Not so much, and the swimming took some effort. I was tired by the end, but it was fun!
I spent some time with Meg in Great Barrington last week and was there when all four kids left for their first day of school on the same bus. This is a very big deal, because in past years, Stella, who is 9, would ride the bus, and then Meg would pile Miles, now 7, and the twins, now almost 5, into the van and drive them all over the place to their various schools. The twins only went to school half the day so Meg then had to double back and pick them up, what, 23 minutes after she dropped them off? I’m sure it seemed that way.
But this year they are all at the same school. Hurrah! In preparation for this change, Meg and Aaron wisely had the kids get up at their regular school day time for about three days in a row leading up to their first day. They would run through the morning routine so it went like clockwork on the day of. Pretty smart.
When I ambled downstairs on their first day of school, the twins were wandering around the back yard with their backpacks on, ready to go. Vivian spotted me, threw her hands up and said “A HALF AN HOUR!” They were pretty psyched to get on the bus.
Meg and Aaron were both psyched to raise a glass to their accomplishment.
(click the pics below to enlarge and scroll down for one other little treat)
I’ve likely shared this story but when the twins were just first starting to talk, I came for a visit. As they sat in their high chairs, Meg said to them “Yeah, that’s Auntie Cyd!” after one of them pointed at me. We can’t remember which one did this, but they responded “No…Auntie Honey!” And it stuck.
After texting Meg to ask how the kids’ first day went, she sent me an audio clip of one of them talking about their day, and then this little gem of a video of Sylvia…
BEAN'S BABBLETORIUM 