In the meantime, I can tell Rowan also feels a little in-between right now, which makes sense. She knows preschool is starting soon, but it hasn't started yet. Her summer classes ended a few weeks ago, but they don't begin again for awhile. We're working on her big kid room, but it's still a few weeks from being ready. She knows it's her birthday this month, but she's still two for now. J.J. is traveling or working four out of the next seven weekends. She keeps asking me if it's still summer or if it's already fall, and that's a hard question to answer when - yep, it's still summer, but yeah, it's already fall.
All I know about Rowan feeling in-between is that I'm right there with her. And today, the in-between day of this three-day weekend, we ended up spending the whole day just having fun together...a good antidote to the chaos of in-between.
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We woke up slowly this morning. Rowan busied herself with a box of seashells from a friend of mine while I took an extra-long shower. Her shells talked to each other, played together, jumped off bridges together...and kept Rowan amazingly occupied together. We both got dressed - me in painting clothes, Rowie in an "Obee dress" from last year that's now an Obee tank top.
We had a quick breakfast before attending to the only task Rowan wanted to attempt today: painting her big kid room. (The Obee tank top was removed and placed in another room - with the door closed - during Rowie's first foray into the world of non-Crayola paint.)
She was hilarious. She wanted to - and did - try every painting accessory, from the angled brush to the foam roller to the paint can key to the paper towels. She kept up a running commentary, including my favorite declaration of the day: "Woooo-EE, that was HARD WORK!" She was just so careful and diligent and proud. (Plus, I actually got to do a fair amount of cutting in while she was busy foam-rolling the walls, which was an unexpected bonus.)
After painting was over (an unceremonious "I'm all done now," accompanied by Rowan almost dropping a paint-filled roller on the floor), we headed out to hunt down a very specific request of Rowie's for her new room: pink and yellow lamps. That's one pink lamp, one yellow lamp. Harder to find than you'd think! And we struck out at both HomeGoods and Target, probably thanks to it being the tail end of move-in week in Ann Arbor. I looove living in a university town, but leave us some damn lamps, you kids!
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| "Mommy, I want to show my Band-Aid in the picture." Her permanent decorative Band-Aid has changed unnecessary locations, from her thumb to a bug bite on her bicep. She's thrilled because now everyone notices and asks about it. |
After we left both HomeGoods and Targets with completely empty carts - which I felt deserved some kind of prize, like maybe lots of free gift cards to each store? - we went on a lunch date. Rowan chose bagels over pizza (??? don't worry, I checked her forehead, she wasn't sick), so we tried our favorite bagel restaurant. No dice - they only had two blueberry bagels left, and sweet bagels don't exactly make the best base for our pickle-and-cheese bagel sandwiches. So we went across the street to Subway. Not my first choice, but there were pickles galore, so we were happy.
Back at home, I crammed in as much painting as I could during nap time before waking Rowan up around 2:45 so we could head to "Gramma's Pool." The pool in my mother-in-law's neighborhood (which is across the street from my neighborhood, a five-minute walk) closes after tomorrow, and since we have other plans tomorrow, today was our last chance to swim there for the summer.
It was hard to drag ourselves out of the water (pretzel Goldfish bribes helped...for both of us). We were both super hungry by the time we got home, and Rowan requested her favorite dinner of late: spaghetti with (wait for it...) hummus on top (gag), and a "Rowie Salad." If you ask her what's in a Rowie Salad, she'll say, "Just everything I like!" Tonight it was spinach, quinoa, red onions, cucumbers, walnuts, cilantro, and gorgonzola cheese with fresh lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, and apple cider vinegar mixed in. Might sound a little funky, but don't knock it - I had the same salad for dinner, and it was delicious!
After eating and doing the dishes, usually we would head outside to play before bedtime, but I decided to treat us to our first movie night. Rowan saw "Finding Dory" in the theater this summer, and she watched "Frozen" on her birthday last year, but she hasn't really seen any other movies (just a lifetime's worth of Daniel Tiger). So she took an early bath, got into her jammies, and snuggled up with me on the couch with some popcorn to watch "Finding Nemo".
She was pretty squirrely during the movie, and I guess I kind of forgot that "Finding Nemo" isn't really toddler-oriented - no music, and a storyline that Rowan thought was unnecessarily confusing and drawn-out: "Did he find Nemo yet? But where IS Nemo now? But where's his DADDY now? NOW did they find Nemo?" Still, she liked it. Plus, it just so happens that "Finding Nemo" is the movie that J.J. and I saw together the day we realized we were officially dating, so it's basically required viewing for our offspring. Rowan kept looking up at me with big round eyes and saying, "Mommy, do you like this yummy, yummy popcorn?" Yes, yes I do. But mostly, I just want to eat her up.
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She's in bed now and somehow stayed asleep through the end-of-season fireworks going off down the street at our neighborhood pool. J.J. comes back late tomorrow night, I have deadlines that I need to meet this week, her classes will be starting up, and soon it won't just be chilly at night; it'll be cool round the clock, and I'll miss these sweet, easy summer days. Meanwhile, I've got two walls to paint, a basket of laundry to fold, some sleep to chase, and a pool party with friends tomorrow. I'll get at you soon, Fall - but I'm hanging on to summer just a liiiittle bit longer.
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