2009=Summer of Love

Many of my friends have probably thought "where is Amy? I haven't seen her in weeks!" many times over this summer, so I decided I would write about what I did this summer and why I've been so absent. When we moved into this house in June we had just finished a whirlwind experience called graduate school and seeing as how we graduated, moved, started a new job, and Cortney was called as the EQ president all in the same week, Will and I needed a break from life.

We slept in (like past 9) and took naps (2 a day sometimes), read books, and ran through the sprinklers every afternoon while we waited for Dad to get home. It was exactly the thing I needed- to just slow down for a little while.

After those first few weeks, I started getting back into my old routine, whatever that is. I was running errands, hanging out with friends, working up a sweat to cook dinner, etc. And then something happened. I'm not exactly sure when it happened, or how it happened, but it happened. There was a nagging something that just kept telling me to slow down and simplify my life and enjoy all my time with Will. Instead of bringing Will into my life and carting him around to all the things I needed to do, I needed to spend a summer in his world.

What happened this summer was truly amazing. I think there's just a special atmosphere during the summer that just lets everyone relax a little more, but this was more than that. I never worried about what to have for dinner- in fact, I hardly went to the grocery store and I can't remember how many times Cortney asked me if I had plans for dinner and I said, "nope".

I just treasured every single day. And I'm so not a mushy person! But there was just something about this summer that made me so sentimental. It was our time. Just me and Will. And I noticed so many small things that I probably would have never known had I not just followed that feeling of just relaxing. Here are some of them:

Will hates it when you grab his arm to hold hands, but if you pull out your hand and offer to hold hands, he'll walk with you anywhere you go.

Will remembers to say prayers at mealtimes better than I do. When I set food down on his tray, he automatically folds his arms, something I wish I had the habit to do every time I sat down starving in front of food.

He uses everything as a toy phone, even his hand. And he always hands whatever he's using over to you so that you'll talk on his phone.

Whenever he gets something on his hands, he holds it up to you like he's saying, "Hey, I have a problem and you're supposed to fix it!"

When we build towers with blocks and then knock them over, Will pushes off each block individually until he's destroyed the whole tower instead of just knocking them over all at once.

When Dad leaves in the morning, is walks over to the front window and watches him drive away.

His official vocabulary is: Amen, bye, hi, and yeah. He also mimics counting, which is really funny and I'm perplexed as to how he picked it up.

He whistles when he's excited. He also turns around in a circle when he's excited.

Fruit snacks can make any bad day better.

Pushing the stroller is much more fun than sitting in the stroller.

Will loves climbing into big chairs and sitting in them, strollers too. When we go to COSI, his favorite part is climbing into all the strollers parked at KidSpace.

Will goes down the big curly slide at the park all by himself. He crawls backward onto the slide and slides down backward on his belly. He feels so proud of himself when he gets to the bottom.

Will has also starrted a love for the garbage truck. He watches it from the window every week as it goes down our street.

I also read a lot this summer. About 2 books a month, in addition to BusinessWeek and the Economist most weeks. I know it sounds so corny, but I really can't put into words what this summer has meant to me. It was just perfect and it was such a great reminder of what I actually need in my day-to-day life, not as many things as I used to think. It was lots of cuddling, playing, laughing, and squeeling in delight. I am so thankful that I took a break for a while, and thankful for the prompting to do so, whether it was inspired or not.