The End of Summer

If the number of Band-Aids used is any indication of a good summer, we had a great one. I don’t ever want to forget the summer that they were six and two. I can’t imagine a better summer. I truly can’t. And the best part, for me, was that I spent so much of it with them. Like, really really with them. It was the first summer that I really let myself just savor all the benefits that come with being a tenured professor. And I’ll never regret it for a single second. One of my best memories was reading books to K & O this summer. Summer afternoons sitting in the sun-room during Meera’s nap, the boys with lemonade, me with iced coffee, reading book after book under the whirring ceiling fan. In the end, despite how many hours were spent reading, there was this one item that we didn’t succeed in checking off the Summer To Do List: “Read every book on kids’ bookshelf.” We didn’t finish. And I’m glad. I’m glad because it goes to show just how many kids’ books we have (a good thing). And I’m glad because it is a case-in-point for our bambinos that nobody is perfect (for Kyle, our super-perfectionist, this is especially important to experience first-hand). And I’m glad because it means that our book challenge bridges from summer into fall. I have great expectations for fall afternoons sitting in the sun-room during Meera’s nap, the boys with mulled cider, me with hot coffee, reading book after book snuggled up under blankets.

There will never be another Summer 2010. But man, did we enjoy the heck out of it while it was here!

Seasons change. And so do we. But we get to keep our memories.