The school year was just a bad dream...

Our family is settled into "summer."  I love it.  I love not getting up so early and not being on such a ridgid schedule.  Julian's not the only one that's taking a break.  Once he would get home, I would have the daunting task of keeping him on track with his homework while preparing dinner.  I have always been an anti-schedule person.  I'd love to be, it's just something I've always struggled with.  It comes much more naturally to take each day as it comes and enjoy it. 

I feel for those parents that don't get summers with their kids.  Growing up, each summer was filled with adventure.  My childhood friend, Justin and I would ride our bikes all over creation.  My cousin Kim and I would stay up late (or all night).  When we were about 11, we fondly remember taking a walk at 5:oo a.m. just to say we did it.  My mom stayed home with us and we were allowed a lot of freedom over the summer.  I want to give my kids a sense of that, or at the very least, a moment to feel bored after such a hectic school year. 

The last weeks of school this year were very hectic.  Julian did well overall on his grades and he is officially a fifth grader.  We visited Harrisburg for his class trip, which was more interesting for the adults than the kids.  We had a brief tour of the state capitol that included sitting in on the House of Representatives while they were in session.  You may wonder, what do they do all day?  Well, for our brief 15 minutes they discussed: Should firehalls that host bingo nights allow smoking?  Big issues.  After a lot of rhetoric was passed around, nothing got resolved.  I always wondered what Harrisburg looked like.  The furthest west I had been was Penn State twelve years before for a Tori Amos concert.  I found it to be clean for the most part and small compared to Philadelphia and Reading.  It looked like not a whole lot goes on there.   

I was shocked by how "mature" his classmates were compared to him.  Everyone on our tour bus had a Nintendo DS and spent the ride texting eachother.  Of course, Julian and another boy had just a plain old Gameboy.  It was a good thing for the most part, because some kids were texting inappropriate words to eachother.  It was just a shock how one year can change a class.  Last year on the third grade field trip, I found everyone acting age appropriate.  Now, there wasn't a day that went by when Julian didn't ask me what a certain curse word meant, or what did the punchline mean to an offensive joke they told on the bus. 

It's hard to see your baby grow up. So at least for the next couple months, he becomes all mine again.