Summer is Overrated

I have decided that summer is entirely overrated. I've never been a huge fan of summer to begin with -- give me a crisp fall day anytime and I'd be happy. You know the kind where you have to at least wear a jacket if you go outside and all the leaves have turned brilliant colors and are falling from the trees? Heaven. Hot sticky weather, a 5 year old and his sidekick 2 year old sister bored out of their minds and competing for mommy's attention are not my idea of fun.

Conall was supposed to start the summer program I signed him up for on Wednesday. I wrote the date on the calendar the day we got the letter from them. We've been preparing him for at least the last week, if not month, for the beginning of his "summer school". We drove by the school Tuesday night and he checked out the playgrounds and started making plans for the next day.

Conall went to Conway to play with his friend Tristan on Tuesday and by Tuesday night he was worn out. He woke up with a night terror that night, the worst one he's ever had. It took us well over 30 minutes to wake him up. He kept telling me I was a "bad mommy" because I couldn't fix his sore throat, although at the time he wouldn't let me do anything.

Wednesday morning Conall was hard to wake up and really groggy from being up late with the night terror and his fun-filled play day with Tristan. Somehow we got him out of bed, fed, and dressed for school. The school is on the way to Stu's work and Caitlin was still asleep, so daddy took him.

Conall and Stu had been gone about 10 minutes when Stu called my cell phone. He asked me how sure I was that school started on Wednesday. The school was surprisingly deserted for the first day. While I rummaged through the house for the letter, they spotted someone parking and going in.

Turns out school did not start on Wednesday, but starts this coming Monday. I think Conall's night terror and "bad mommy" comments must have been a premonition of the next day. Bad mommy! How could I have done that? I'm still not sure. I'm certain I checked the Web site the week before last and last week. I called last week to see if we needed to bring any paperwork with us and I thought I verified the date. My poor little guy was so disappointed.

And, of course, I had nothing special planned for this week for Conall, thinking he would be in school. Luckily, Jana and her kids rescued me on Wednesday and invited us down to help get Conall's mind off mommy's mistake and to give him something to do.

Today was a different story. After being gone for 2 days and after being sick last week, I had to get some laundry and other things around the house done. I also tried to do "fun" things at home with Conall. I think we lasted until lunchtime before it started to feel like a long, insufferable summer day.

I think once allergies and spring hit, my brain goes somewhere else. Maybe it is daydreaming of fall and winter. Who knows? All I know is that summer is far overrated.