It's been a hard week. But it's over, and summer begins...

Sometimes, you just want to curl up in a ball and rock until it's over.  Or until everyone is scared that you are going to totally lose your schmidt and finally leaves you the heck alone.

Thankfully, this week was not quite as bad as that.

Found out a neighbor and dear friend was just diagnosed with stage 3 cancer.  The doctors are still trying to pinpoint where it came from to figure out how to treat it.  And all because of a faulty gall bladder that had to come out.  Thank God for the little things.

Another dear, although not exactly close, friend is single again.  After a very long, difficult year.  My heart goes out to her, and I hope I can be there for her if she needs me. 

Everyone in the house has been sick.  As in, puke, poop, and snot sick.  I'm done with sick, it's SUMMER already! 

Today, Aidan "graduated" from Kindergarten.  They had an adorable program at the school, and Aidan was wonderful, singing and grooving along with his classmates.  We had fun the other day at Storyland, and he is looking forward to being a Big Kid 1st grader next year.

3 days and trying not to count

Where has the year gone?  And by year, I mean "school" year.  Seriously, what happened?  It seems like a week ago that I was having to physically peel Divo off of me at K drop-off, and now he's tossing his backpack over the fence and skipping in to his class without a care in the dang world.  Whuck.  Happened?  And tomorrow is the big end-of-year field trip.  Which I volunteered for.  Again.  I must be out of my mind.  And, I was informed this morning, that Divo knows all about school busses, and he will be riding it all by himself this time, because he's not a baby anymore and he will just see me when we get to Storyland.  Keep in mind, that was about 30 minutes before I got an e-mail from his teacher to tell me he dropped the F-bomb in class, and that parents would be drawing numbers for the "privilege" of riding on the bus tomorrow.  Um, can I just opt out of that insanity?  I'll meet you there after a nice drive with Pink & OneRepublic, maybe some Beyonce. 

On the other hand, there's Whiney, who has regressed over the last few weeks.  60 bajillionzillion hugs after we walk in the door I might be allowed to leave the sitters' house.  After one more kiss and yet another confirmation of pick-up time.  He can't tell time yet, but it is deathly important to know at exactly what minute mommy is coming to pick them up.  Because I might leave them there or something.  As if.  Not sure where this new clinginess is coming from - maybe it's the mention of going to "real" pre-school next year.  He's not big on change, my Divo. 

And then there's Thing.  Oh how Thing has changed.  He's still my adorable, semi-cuddly hot mess of trouble, but he's talking now, and adamantly making his wishes known.  Like that the dog MUST be let back in as soon as he wakes, nevermind that she is going to be put out again in 13 minutes when we leave.  And how some days he wants his Spidey shoes (even though they are a bit small now) and others the sandals or his "boo-shew", aka navy blue & green Stride-Rite hand-me-down sneakers.  He's also decided that he should pick out his clothes.  I sort of let him.  I'll offer two shirts and let him choose, because it's never too soon to develop that fashion sense.  I've done the same with the other two, and, while Divo is pretty well coordinated when it comes to clothes, Whiney still wants to wear 3 shirts, and underwear on top of his pants.  Whatev. 

What the shnell am I going to do with these kids over the summer?  Well, not ME per se; my poor abused sitter.  I shall call her Angel, for that is what she is.  I've gotten all 3 library cards, but dragging 5, sometimes 6 children under the age of 8 to the library could be a daunting task. Maybe I'll just pick up a boatload of craft supplies and sidewalk chalk, water shoes and sunscreen.  We have a pool.  They have a pool.  Kids + water = summertime fun.  Oh, and lots of popsicles too.

Word of the Day

Caller-pitter - It's long, and green, and some are fuzzy, and some maybe have shpowts, and maybe they can be diffrn't colors, and they eat leaves, and then they cover themselfs in spit and make a poo-coon so they can maybe be a butterfly, but caller-pitters is more fun than butterflies cause they crawl on your finger and tickle.

Milestones

Ahh the milestones of childhood.  Those rites of passage that, as adults, we look on fondly, and sometimes shake our heads while reaching for another cocktail. 

One of the biggest is learning to ride without training wheels.  It's the wind in your hair, it's the sun on your face, it's not hearing that annoying plastiky scraping sound every time you over-balance and ride the baby-wheels.

Divo hit this particular milestone this weekend.  And all it took was the girl across the street to do it ;)

Nothing like a younger woman to show you up, girly-man.

In other news, Whiney has NOT given up the wheels yet, thing still can't reach the pedals, and the rain has temporarily gone away.  We DO live in California, right?  It's not supposed to be 58 degrees in JUNE!