Over the summer, Sophie expressed interest in spending time with just Mommy, one on one. She adores Jack (well, most of the time!) but she has definite
ly born the brunt of being the older sibling at times, and has been noticeably a little jealous of some of the attention Jack gets.
Given that she was not quite 2 years old when Jack came along, most of her life has been spent with another sibling in tow. She didn't begin preschool until Jack was 8 months old, which meant that she had to yield to whatever schedule I had going for him at the time. It was an exhausting chapter in our lives, trying to balance having 2 almost totally dependent children all day long. In all honesty, there's no way I could have appreciated that time the way I would've liked to, and sometimes I feel guilty about that, but I also know that it gave me resilience as a mother that I wouldn't otherwise have.
Once Sophie started preschool, I remember the relief I felt to have just one child at a time - even if it was for just 3 hours a couple days a week. And the one at a time mostly referred to Jack. Even last year, when he started preschool, Sophie was the one who went to Pre-K 4 days a week and Jack only 3, which gave Jack a morning with me, all to himself. This year with Sophie being a full-time Kindergartner, Jack and I will have even more time together one on one.
Knowing that the start of Kindergarten was fast approaching, I decided to spend the last 3 weeks of the summer doing some Mommy-Daughter dates with Sophie. Jack went to summer camp at his preschool 3 days a week, and Sophie and I relished in our alone time. Sure, I can think of a million other ways to have spent this time. Normally, they would've been in camp together and I would've been a whole lot more productive. But, this is time that I will never get back and I am so thankful that I was wise enough to put my "to do" list on hold for a few weeks.
Here's a recap of how we spent our time...
Tea and pastries at Teafuse in Vinings, before heading to the American Girl Boutique, where I fully expected to pay big bucks for a doll. Turns out Sophie decided she wasn't all that interested, so after looking around the store for awhile we rode the carousel and had lunch at Cheesecake Factory.
Date #2 was spent painting pottery at Art and Soul. Sophie painted a jewelry box for me and I decorated a plate for her, which made it's debut when I served her the very first breakfast of the school year. We linger
ed for almost 2 hours, helping each other pick out the perfect paint colors for our masterpieces.
We spent the next afternoon having lunch with Uncle Mike, who had driven a truck all the way from Chicago with his belongings to unload at his new apartment in Atlanta. Mike had just enough time to take Sophie swimming at the slide pool before flying back to Chicago.
Date #4 was a back to school haircut and lunch at one of Sophie's favorite lunch spots, Garrisons. I realized that with just the two of us, we could actually carry on a real conversation, without all of the normal interruptions from the more chaotic lunches with Jack in tow.
The next day, w
e headed to the Georgia Aquarium, which despite being a total mob scene, was a nice way to escape from the heat. Eric's office is right around the corner from the aquarium, so we met him for lunch, and Sophie was thrilled that we could be a threesome, if only for short while.
Finally, swimming together in our neighborhood pool and a trip to Yoforia, our new favorite frozen yogurt shop, where we made our own sundaes before heading to Nickajack to meet her new teachers.
The days leading up to the first day of school were quite bittersweet for me as my mind raced back through the last 5+ years which seems to have gone by so fast in retrospect but not always fast enough day to day as I've been on this adventure called motherhood. I am grateful that we shared this special time together, which in some ways marked the beginning of a whole new chapter in my relationship with Sophie. It also made me realize how special that time was to Sophie, and the importance of carving out this kind of time in the midst of our busy and often chaotic daily lives.
Eric was happy to celebrate his 39th birthday with both of his best friends from high school and their families. Believe it or not, all three of our families now live in the Atlanta area, which was a totally unexpected perk of moving here five years ago. When we first arrived in Atlanta, The Knabs had moved to Alpharetta just a few months prior. And a few years later, Uncle Matt, Aunt Kori, Will and Colin made the trek all the way from Seattle. These guys have so much history together and it's fun to be able to make more memories with our families being so close. All of our kids are at similar ages and really enjoy being together.
