She told me I could be anything I wanted when I grew up.  Joked a few times about being a lawyer because of my love of arguing,  rolled her eyes and said I should be on stage when I was overly dramatic.  I could be anything that I wanted, but “why don’t you think about education, ” she said over and over again. 

“You like kids. You’d be good at it.  And you’d have summers off.” 

Sigh.  I should have listened. 

It’s officially summer.  And every day I leave for work to go sit in my office with the space heater aimed at my feet,  (Note to building maintenance:  64 degrees is not comfortable) while my husband and my daughter spend hours together going for walks, hanging out with his family and swimming in the pool. 

Yes, Craig still goes to the school in the morning for weight room supervision and football workouts, but he’s home by mid-morning.  Even on busy days he spends time with the babe at lunch and then again after her afternoon nap.  I come home to find them both damp from their recent dip in the pool.  Smiling and happy at having been outside playing together.  Making memories.  Bonding. 

I love that they get this time together.  Without my hoovering and barking out orders and enforcing naptime.  But at the same time I am jeaous.  Of her, that she gets his undivided attention.  (And that she gets to take naps twice a day.) And of him for getting more than two or three hours a day with his baby girl. 

So, for me, summers are much like the other nine months of the year.  Hustle to the office for meetings, phone calls and deadlines.  Slow down a little on weekends for early morning walks, short naps by the pool and lots of cooking on the grill.  But (at least until C graduates from high school) for the rest of the family, summers will be full of lazy days, fun (and not so fun) projects, swimming and losing track of time.

What does summer mean to you? 

This post was inspired by writing prompt #5 (what does summer mean to your family?) by Mama Kat.

 - I am trying to crawl my way up the Top Baby Blogs list.  If you can spare a moment, to click here, it would help me immensely and you may find other blogs to add to your list of good reads.  XOXO!   

You know?  I want to put new content up on this blog every day, or at least more often, but some days in midst of the constant whirl of diapers, bottles, deadlines, email, and bath time, I can’t think of a topic that would anyone would want to read.  So, today… Mama Kat is at least making that part easier for me with her Writing Workshop.  After I got over reminiscing about my 11^th grade English class with Mrs. G, I looked at her list of selections and chose this one to write about: 

1.)  Baby fever is in the air. Describe what you would do differently as a first time mom.

Baby fever is in the air?  Really?  Hm… uh… gee… I hadn’t notice.  Certainly, it is not in the air around here.  I haven’t found myself missing the days when C was itty bitty.  Nope.  And I haven’t looked at pictures of pregnant women with a touch, just a touch, of jealousy.  Not at ALL.  And I definitely didn’t get out my calculator to think about things like: how old C would be when #2 came if I got pregnant now or if we were in a financial position to afford another wee one or to count the days since my last period, you know… just in case. 

Before anyone gets all anxious or excited, I am not pregnant.  But I am starting to entertain the idea again.  Am I insane to think about it this soon?  Probably.  But I had an easy delivery and, mostly, an easy baby that gets me thinking I’m super mom and I can do this again.  But, with six whole months of motherhood behind me and still being focused on survival, not necessarily parenting (subtle difference, my friends) I think I can say that there are at least a few things I would do differently in those first few months. 

1. Learn about the secret of the 5 S’s from Happiest Baby on the Block BEFORE the baby arrives.  And then, I would use them.  Immediately. As soon as I realized that putting my baby on her side, holding her close to me and bouncing her would calm her down or put her to sleep, life as a first time mom got MUCH easier. 
2. I would attempt to not have the baby during football season.  Thankfully we live close to the high school and Craig was great about coming home as often as he could to see us, but it was still me, all day long.  And I had to figure it out.  There were times of tears and frustration and begging her to stop crying. There were six very intense weeks of hands on training. And, I wish that we had gotten to experience that insecurity of not knowing what to do together.  And thus, figured it out together. 
3. I wouldn’t buy a single piece of clothing.  We received so many cute outfits from wonderful friends and family that we ended up packing away outfits that she grew out of before she even had a chance to wear it. 
4. I would only buy/clothe my child in pants with the feet in them.  Keeping socks on a baby should be an olympic event. 
5. I would have cabinets full of medication to help with post-delivery recovery.  Cause it effing hurts.  I was prepared for the pain of labor.  I swear I was, even though I begged for an epi after 3 hours.  I was not, prepared for the pain of stitches and other fun delivery recovery. 
6. I would try to remember that the 4AM wakeup calls will not last forever and hang onto those moments when she is a squishy newborn that wants to be cuddled and snuggled.
7. I would accept that I was not going to be in my pre-pregnancy clothes when my six-week maternity leave was over. 

I’m sure as C starts to get older and I have to worry about things like teething, walking, a healthy diet, and discipline ( ::shudder:: ) I will have a list that’s miles long about all the things I would do differently, but for now, I think we’re doing OK here. 

What would you do differently?  Leave a comment and share it with me, or join the Writer’s Workshop and blog about it.