I remember clearly the year that Brayden was two.  I remember the school year starting, and James going back to work. And I bought a teacher’s planner from the dollar section at Target. It made me so happy.  A blank slate of possibilities.  I remember scouring the website for local places–for library story times at a few different libraries, for free events , for pay your age days and for special things that were only going on during the day when it was just the two of us.  I planned out our weeks with fun filled activities, and carefully wrote them out in my teacher’s planner, because that’s just how cool I am. When we were at home and the weather was nice, we used to sit outside and play–part of our driveway had a fence on both sides, one for the pool and one for the property line, and I could gate the end of the driveway in so that he couldn’t go anywhere.

It’s incredible how life is so different these days.  Carter’s Pre-K schedule (four days a week), combined with Sawyer’s nap schedule is just insane.  Sawyer still takes two naps–he goes down at about 9:30 and sleeps (if he takes a good one, until 11).  We leave for school at 12:15.  We get home at 3. And Brayden is home at 3:50. If it sounds a little crazy, it’s because it is, and literally there is hardly any time to do anything.  So, while Brayden and I galavanted all over Rochester doing fun activities, poor Carter hasn’t quite had the same experience at home.

There’s hope for me though! Sawyer will be two next year, and both boys will be in school full time. Perhaps I can rewind and try this whole thing all over again.  Let’s just hope Target has a teacher’s planner in their dollar section next summer for me to scoop up.