Time for Summer to End

They went back to school in Red State Capital City Suburb on Tuesday. M was on the phone with L Sunday night, discussing who got which teacher and which of their friends are together. She spent Tuesday marking the hours on the Red State Capital City Suburb school schedule: now they're lining up, now they're listening to announcements on the loudspeaker, now it's lunch, now it's recess, now they've gone home. Tuesday evening she was right back on the phone with L, dissecting the day in avid detail (most important detail: they miss her).

I knew this would be the hardest part of our move for her. For most of the summer it was all mommy all the time, and for a good chunk of that, it was not just mommy, but New York or Grandma or lakes. Then we came back from vacation and S and I both went to work (S has been working pretty much since we got here, but in a very mellow way for him--four nights a week; now he is working in a get-up-at-five-and-get-on-the-computer-before-going-to-work-all-day-and-then-get-calls-on-his-mobile-all-evening kind of way). M is having a good time without us--sometimes she's with her favorite cousin, getting pretty much all T's attention because E and T's younger brother C are inseparable; sometimes she's with one of her favorite babysitters ever, who happens to live in Town now (yay!).

Still, she's ready for school. She's ready for routine and a teacher and, most importantly, new friends. She said it herself yesterday: "I want my summer to be over."

But school doesn't start for another two weeks...