Goodbye, summer. Goodbye glorious gratuitous amounts of time together every day. Though I am sad to see summer go, mostly because it means we don’t get to spend as much time together, I know how excited you are this first week of school to make new friends and explore your new classroom. We had a great summer, though, even if it did seem to fly by too fast.

At the beginning of the summer we had your first birthday party, which was a big deal! It felt like it was only a few short days after that it was time to go to Canada for our family summer vacation.

Taking you to Canada for the first time was a very special experience for your daddy and I. There were many family members on daddy’s side of the family that you hadn’t met yet, so we were able to introduce you to all kinds of family and friends on the trip. We took you to daddy’s hometown in British Columbia, and every morning we started the day off with some beach time. You adored the beach and loved splashing in the water and playing in the sand. The next leg of our Canadian adventure took us through the Canadian Rocky Mountains and Banff National Park on our way to Calgary. We had a family photo taken on the exact spot at Lake Minnewanka where daddy proposed to mama! Calgary is where we lived before you were born, and there were lots of our friends there that were so happy to get to meet you. Vacation held a lot of firsts for you like flying in an airplane, and we had so much fun doing it all together as a family.

All good things come to an end of course, and before we knew it, it was time to come home. Returning from our trip signaled not only the end of vacation, but also the end of summer for me since I had to go back to work right away. It felt like the summer wasn’t long enough! You stayed home for another two weeks with a babysitter and then the new school year officially began.

Your first week back to “school” at your daycare has gone well! As expected, it’s taken a bit of adjustment at drop-off as we get back into the groove of a new school year, but it’s an adjustment for everyone in your room and you’ll ALL get used to it and settled in soon enough. For the record, dropping off when there’s lots of tears (From you AND all of your classmates!) is hard. It breaks my heart! You lay your head on my shoulder and hug me close and all I want to do is stay with you all day. While tough, I know only minutes after I leave the tears dry up and you get on with your day. It’ll just take some time, and you’re very sweet about trying to comfort your classmates.

Every day when I pick you up, your teacher gushes about how great your day has been, and you seem very happy to see me AND very excited to show me what you’re doing, too. I had to laugh when your teacher reported on the third day that your trend is being the last kid to fall asleep at nap time so that you can “chat” with your teachers. So when everyone else starts going down for a nap, that’s when you are the most talkative! You even helped your teacher pat the back of one of your classmates to help them fall asleep before going down for your own nap. This is hysterical to me, because you truly are your mother’s son. It sounds just like the reports my parents got about me when I started school! Good to see you’re starting off just like your mama.

This summer was very special and I’m thankful for all of the time we got to spend together. The new school year will be full of exciting new learning adventures… bring it on!

love,
mama