Summer [End Scene]

Life has a way of readying us for things we think we'll never be ready for, like back-to-school for instance. Just for instance.

I am weird I guess, I love my kids. I am excited for them to be out of school, maybe I'm just new at this. I love these kids, this is what I was born to do, with a maid of course and two short mornings a week for professional development. I love making snacks and lunches and showing them how to explore the world in our own backyard or in India's backyard, you know whatever the case may be.

This is what I dreamed of all my life. These kids aren't mile markers of success or a one way ticket to a minivan, although they sort of are, they are the little people I always wanted running around my house, licking my face, telling me that I look like a princess and that look like I'm having another baby in the same dress. Telling me that I "smell like sleep" when I've not even unglued my "eye-bulbs" at 5:50am. I love them, but it isn't always easy.

I was totally pumped when school was out because I got to relive the awesome summers of my childhood. While my dad worked nights to complete his dissertation when the sun came up; my mom, a school teacher, packed us up along with our lunches and we explored a new playground each day.

So that is what we set out to do this summer.

With perfect timing we were here in DC, which is a giant, free playground.

We hit up a different spray-ground each day in the early summer. Armed with lunches in tiny colored sandwich shaped boxes: Peanut butter for Sam, peanut butter and "jam" (not jelly mind you) for Peter and fruits, nuts, beans and berries for little Miss Clementine.

We played until we dropped, we met our BFFs in and out of town at parks, museums and in sprinklered yards. We drank coffee, shared water and snacks and might have been kicked out of a fountain or two that were not for swimming. Apparently we aren't in Brazil anymore.

After a trip to Washington I began to feel like we were in the home stretch of summer. I wasn't ready for it to end, lucky for me it didn't, and the boys school is the latest school in North America to start.

With just one week left to go this Monday, summer has continued to be fun and filled with picnics, tree-climbing, long walks and leaf collecting, in all honesty it has also been filled with me about to lose my mind. A special recipe of summer's final weeks, falls first days, a looming deadline in which we pack up and move to the other side of the world and a lot of awesome projects that I'm eager to work on and have cultivated in my business this year.

The boys have all but given up their naps. Sam still naps sporadically and Peter, forever stubborn, romances me with any from the following list of excuses or any that he comes up with new, on a daily basis:

"I'm not old enough to nap."

"I am too old to nap."

"Sleep makes me sweaty."

"I am not tired."

"I am too tired."

"I have to poop."

"I can't poop."

"The sun is still up."

"Sleeping makes me tired."

"Sleeping makes me hungry."

"Sleeping is boring."

You get the idea. When I release him from the torture that is being confined to his bed he drives planes on my head while I do yoga and whispers things to his planes like, "look out the big lady plane is in our way," while I'm in Shavasana.

Last night Paul and I attended the boy's school's Parent Orientation night. We met each of their teachers, assistants and walked through their days. I finally feel ready to set them free to make new friends and learn some cool new stuff in our final few months before we leave, but only because we blew summer out of the water. Just as I had intended.

When I saw Pete's tiny name scrawled on an apple on the door above the place he would sit and play, I was as filled with pride as I was the day he was born. I knew then and more confidently now that he will be such a wonderful asset to the world. He has so much hilarity and wise insight to share. I can't wait and am yet equally terrified to see how it will be received.

The boys are off to school next week. Clem and I are off to figure out what to do with ourselves in a world that we love that we've built surrounded by boys. Stay tuned for our first all girls week, next week.