Today was Monkey’s last day of school for the year. Actually it was his very first last day of school! There was a pizza party and everything. But frankly, I don’t know how I’m going to survive summer, spring break was almost the death of me. He’s not my little toddler anymore, he’s been out in the world away from me, and he just won’t be content in our old unstructured ways. He’s made friends at school, friends he’ll want to see, so there will be playdates. There is a recommended reading list and activities to help him prepare for kindergarten. I’m actually going to have to plan stuff!

We walk up to school most days and I really enjoy it. I’m going to miss our walks; I guess we’ll just have to walk to other places. The exercise, the fresh air, the nature, all of them add a nice aspect to my day. Especially the parts back home after dropping Monkey off and when we walk back up to pick him up. It’s not that I don’t like walking with Monkey, but that time alone with Pumpkin is special. She’s just so new to all this human-stuff and absolutely everything is this bright, shiny wonder to her.

On the way back up to the school, we played one of her favorite games-”Mama, what’s your name?” She asks everybody present in just that fashion. “Daddy, what’s your name?” And the answers are always the same, “Daddy.” “Mama, what’s your name?” “Mama.” And then you have to ask her, “Pumpkin, what’s your name?” “Pumpkin” she answers. Luckily this round didn’t last too long.

Then she picked up a stick that she declared just the right size for a walking stick. She told me it was for walking up the dirt. Then she said, “Mama, today is Dirt Day. I love dirt.”

I knew it. Kids don’t just get dirty in the pursuit of other things like play. They get dirty because they love the dirt itself, on its own merits. So the next time I look around my kid-full House and wonder how all the dirt got in, I’ll know that the children have invited it over. Because they love dirt.

God, it’s going to be a long summer.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 10:58 pm and is filed under In front of the neighbors, Kids' Room. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.