The Last Day

Today is the last day of Spring Break. Tomorrow I begin counting down the days until summer vacation. This is one of the things that I love about teaching (that sounds bad). What I mean is, I love how I can compartmentalize time into 6-10 week periods and look forward to the beginning or the end of something. While I enjoy the process, it is always a bonus to reach the end, look back, and reflect fondly (not always) on what was accomplished (or not). So, here's looking forward to the next 10 weeks (and then summer vacation!).

I think this was one of the best breaks I've had yet. It was especially relaxing, for I was not traveling out of the country, nor was I prego and nesting. It was just calm, and the kids and I took one day at a time. Lizzie and I had a lot of fun reconnecting, and Mark and I discovered that it takes about two weeks to detox her from all of the influences at school. The past few days have been a dream with her. Last night, Mark and I were commenting on how she has taken another developmental leap. Words and phrases and actions are much more polished and mature. She knows words like 'unnecessary' and uses proper grammar like, "Thank you for eating breakfast with Daddy and me." You know, it's funny that when babies are little, we teach them words by showing them an object, such as a ball, and saying, "Ball." I don't recall showing Lizzie a picture of unnecessary and saying, "Unnecessary." It sort of floors me when she uses language correctly, especially when it's something like, "G-- damn it, Mark!" Just cracks me up!

Phin, too, has made some major leaps over the past couple of weeks. I am now officially Mama and Mark is officially Dada. He has accumulated two PHAT bruises on his face: one on his right eye where he fell into the corner of the coffee table at my mom's house, and one across his forehead (not sure how that happened). We are anticipating more bumps and bruises since he is exercising bipedality more frequently these days. Although crawling is still his favorite mode of transportation (or my carrying his 25lb arse around), he's gettin' around just fine on two little feet!

Amongst our notable excursions over the past two weeks were a trip to the West Side Market, which Lizzie adored, a short visit to the zoo, many walks in the neighborhood, a bit of shopping, swimming at the pool, one lazy PJ Day with fresh popped popcorn in the best popcorn machine ever known to man (you can see it here) and a few movies, and all around pure laziness. My favorite part, though, was the day that I got to spend with my husband fishing for steelhead (view story here).

Today, Sunday, blue skies and warmish weather await us.