11 hours and counting

Until that bell rings and Carden returns to school. Pity preschool doesn't begin for another three weeks. Yep, Seth, despite his fifth birthday, will stay at home and preschool for another year. The school cutoff is five weeks after his birthday, and we felt like he could really use another year before being thrown to the kindergarten wolves.

We squeezed out our last few days of summer vacation, although the weather feels like mid-September already. We really only got six weeks of summer weatherwise, so part of me feels like we never got warmed up (literally). But in the last 72 hours we hit the park, the snow-cone shack, the pool, the children's museum, and the Belgian waffle stand. We also spent four days cleaning and sorting the playroom, a Herculean task measured in the number of trash-can loads dumped.

With only seven weeks to this pregnancy left, I am torn between great memories of all the fun we did have, and regret for all the things we didn't do because I just didn't have the stamina for it. Lucky the kids are young enough that we can massage their memories to focus on the good times. So farewell summer, we hardly knew ya. But it was great while it lasted.

Seth survives to five

There have been many times, I hate to admit, during the last five years, when I would have happily flagged down a passing gypsy caravan and asked them to haul this child off. That Old Testament story of Joseph of Egypt? Well, maybe his brothers had just heard "the whiny voice" one too many times. Digging a pit and packing him off to the pyramids doesn't seem too extreme a reaction, really. Tyler says he's too much like me, which is why I have a lower tolerance for his moping. (And the first person who agrees that I whine or mope gets clobbered.)

To be fair, Seth has a lot of really great traits. He is a stellar worker. He loves to help, and will often go above and beyond his chore list. He is athletic and coordinated. He loves attention, especially linked to a camera, and his blue eyes and white-blond hair pop him out of any crowd. He plays with Charlotte and is always willing to do any little favor I ask (lately this means running up and down the stairs a lot to get/put away some item).

His birthday in July was a big day. We went through our usual birthday traditions: presents laid out at the breakfast table, his choice of meals, the outing he planned, and cake and ice cream. Bless this child who wanted an off-the-shelf cake from Costco. The best $15 I spent and 15 hours I saved all month.

Seth chose Liberty Land, a small local amusement park, for his outing. We played miniature golf, laser tag, rode the roller coaster, rides, bumper boats, over and over.


Showing off his Pokemon shirt, Spiderman sunglasses, and flip-flops. I hate flip-flops--and all sandals between my toes--so I've never bought them for the kids. So these had the aura of "forbidden fruit" since he's the only one in the family who has flip-flops.