Beginning with the End

It’s the end of summer at our house. We have one week left before Sam starts school. Prekindergarten. Known as VPK around here. Gone are the lazy mornings that are interrupted only by even lazier afternoons. Gone are Gus’s late morning naps as we’ll be heading to Sam’s pick-up line right about the time Gus begins to rest his weary head in my lap. And, sadly, gone are Sam’s all day pajama fests. This may be the hardest of our summer habits to break.



When school let out in May, Sam declared this a summer of jammies. He intended to wear jammies all day, every day, he said. And he was true to his word unless he was instructed (strongly) to dress in “real” clothes. He knows his jammie-clad days are numbered as we’ve begun the back-to-school process: buying school supplies, shopping for new shoes for his ever-growing feet, and having discussions about new teachers and school friends. However, just because he knows the fun is ending, does not mean he will give it up willingly. Sam is a boy who loves to be cozy and he’s coziest in his PJs. The t-shirt material shorts I’ve purchased for him don’t measure up and not even his pink t-shirts have had much wear over the past few months. My guess is that by next summer, Sam will be too grown up, too self-aware, to don his sleepwear to the grocery store or out for lunch or to the playground. So, while he’ll be giving up comfort when he trades his pajamas for his back-to-school clothes, I’ll be relinquishing another part of my baby to the boy he is becoming. I’ll have to tuck the Summer of Jammies into my most precious memories and hope that as he grows from a boy and then a teen and ultimately a man that he will have a lifetime of the Summer of Jammies, or its age-appropriate equivalent, to keep him feeling cozy and secure.



In addition to wearing jammies, we took our first family vacation this summer. We went to Sea World. Of our 6 vacation days, we spent three at Sea World. It was fantastic. Having the option to come and go from the park at our leisure as opposed to trying to cram it all into one day was ideal. There was no pressure. We were able to see the shows we wanted to see – we all agree that Shamu does indeed rock – and feed the dolphins and ride the tot rides (Sam rode a roller coaster TWICE and LOVED it!) and relax as we went from exhibit to exhibit. We managed to do all we wanted to do and we did it without stress. We also played the carnival games and Sam won a couple of pink Shamus. Perfect!

Gus happily went along and enjoyed the times he was able to get out of the stroller and run around. He won’t remember our first family vacation, but he will have the satisfaction and the benefits of growing up in a family that makes a family vacation a priority.

Gus let his hair grow this summer revealing a crown of golden curls that earns him a great deal of attention wherever we go. We’re considering getting him his own publicist to control the crowds and book his appearances. He’s expanding his vocabulary and exhausts himself daily trying to mimic, emulate, keep up with and impress his big brother. To Gus, Sam hung the moon, his daddy roped the stars and our dog Riley captured moonbeams in a jar.

We’ll enjoy this last week of lazy, jammie-clad days. The boys will play golf and trains and jump on my bed. We’ll come up with spur-of-the-moment adventures just to get out of the house and we’ll try to organize a final play group at Chuck E. Cheese. It will go too fast – even though we’ll savor its sweetness – and then we’ll be back in the swing. Sam will start school and soccer, Gus will come with me to Baby Boot Camp, to run and to run errands. He will also go to open gym at the gymnastics studio and maybe take a music class. Ozzie and I will get some projects completed around the house before he gets busy again with work. And, I will be forced to address the fact that this is Sam’s last year of preschool and my first-born-son will be off to kindergarten (REAL SCHOOL!) in less than a year. Yikes. Just thinking about it is enough to make me want to spend the total of this next week in my... (you guessed it) ...pajamas.