The year of magical thinking

Today, I am seriously bummed that summer is over. Not because I love summer; spring and fall are my favourite seasons, so if anything I should be happy, right? Nope, not so. Earlier this week we were in Stratford, and I promised to take Liam down to the pedal boats to use up that half hour credit we had left from our last trip out on the lake. Alas, we went down Tuesday morning only to find the boathouse locked up. Today's weather promises to be stinking hot, so I called the Jaycee Pool this morning to find out their swim hours; they are closed for the season now, too. At the start of the summer, I thought we'd be wading there biweekly, and now the season is over and we never made it out once. This year-long respite called maternity leave is winging away, and although I feel like we do get out a lot, there is just always so much more out there to do. Prior to starting it, I envisioned a year of non-stop bonding and fun with my kids. I hope I can look back on the year when it's over and say there wasn't a moment of it that I felt was wasted.

As consolation, I took the kids out to Mitchell's Bay again today. I panicked briefly when we pulled into the parking lot and were the only ones there: was the park closed already, too? But it wasn't. Even the splash pad was still operational, though the water in the bay was warm and clean and we spent more time splashing around there instead. I downloaded the Blenheim pool schedule, and if it rains tomorrow like they say it's going to, maybe we'll head out for our first parent-tot swim of the season (and my first with both kids in tow - eek!)

On the bright side, we were housebound with Mr. Sickie for most of the day yesterday, so we made the most of it, reorganized the toy room and then, to reward ourselves, pulled out all of the Halloween decor. Some things about fall aren't so bad after all!!