Summer + The Spinning Top
School is out and summer is here!
Most of last summer was HARD. We were in survival mode. Amelia wasn't off and running yet, she was still napping for most of each morning, and Eloise napped most of each afternoon, so we were largely housebound, cooped up, and cranky. I couldn't wait for school to start again and felt pretty guilty about it.
This summer I'm giving myself no expectations. It could be more of the same (although those synched up nap schedules are a Godsend and a huge benefit of having babies close in age!), or it could be great. I am hopeful for the latter. So far so good!
For the past couple of months I've had the image of a spinning top in my mind. Each day is full throttle, and sometimes I feel like I'm trying to hold on to a spinning top, following it (them) wherever they go, correcting them, picking up their messes, etc. But at some point I realized that I don't need to manage their every move. They are both fully mobile, can mostly communicate their needs, and are largely loving and respectful toward each other.
As long as they're in a safe environment, I've been trying to give them a little bit more room to breathe and play rather than constantly breathing down their backs. Guess what? Kids can feel when they're being micromanaged, and at least for our girls, it always backfires. The more freedom they're given, the better behaved they usually are. Instead of holding on to the top once it starts spinning, I've been trying to let it go a little bit, and it's been to the benefit of everyone!
I don't have any kind of plan, routine, or bucket list (shudder) for this summer because that just feels like one more thing to do. Eloise has several camps--actually, more than I thought she did which I didn't realize until I started writing them all on the calendar!--and we joined a pool, and I'm excited to have some unstructured days to fill as we spontaneously see fit.
I love the idea of a simple summer, but I also love the idea of giving ourselves grace as moms and accepting wherever we are. Last summer Eloise probably could have benefited from a couple more camps/activities (she only had one week of VBS), which would have been hard to accommodate given the stage we were in. This summer I'm guessing she probably has too many, since she has a built-in playmate in her sister and most days doesn't require much other entertainment. I'm learning as I go, and have come to see that every summer will probably look completely different, and hope I can enjoy and appreciate each one. I loved everything in this post and want to tattoo it on my brain!
How do you do summer?
