Summer Lovin' - Part 1

Ah, summer. A time to lose yourself in the sun's brilliance, reflect on your mastery of life and to spend money freely in the pursuit of leisurely fun. At least that's what I read on the brochure at the beginning of the summer. The reality is that it has been a summer long on work and short on fun, for me at least. For Benjamin summer is like "not-summer," pumped up on steroids.

I will confess that I've had some 10-12 hr days where I am jealous of my 2.5 year old after I hear that his day consisted of: breakfast omelette with mommy, reading books, dancing to music, riding on an indoor choo-choo, hotdogs and a smoothie, a nap, watching some Cars, painting some water colors, collecting stickers for going potty, and getting a visit from the tickle police.

"Wow, I had conference calls and put out fires on projects for the entire day EXCEPT for when I carved out a moment to eat my can of soup at my desk." I really am not bitter, I had just forgotten how awesome it is being a little kid. That day I described wasn't Benjamin's birthday or Christmas morning - it was a Tuesday.

I do get a sense of pride by providing for Benjamin and Emily so they can spend 1-on-1 quality time in these highly formative years, I just wish I could get a piece of that action. I like fun too. Maybe if Benjamin and I both touch some crazy statue at the same time we can switch places for a day/week/year/forever.

Thin Hollywood plot lines aside, the good news is that we took 2 weeks off for some family vacationing. So if Benjamin's summer days were regular days on steroids, vacationing to fun places with Mommy and Daddy must be like Spaceroids!

**Sidenote: The full entry I concocted is 6 pages long, so I'm breaking this sucker up. The good news is that now you'll get some more frequent postings, the bad news is that you'll have to stitch them together in order to decipher the code that uncovers the real JFK tapes**

**Double Sidenote: Mrs. Goldapp, we visited Cam in Chicago and I took photographic evidence to prove that he really is doing well in the big city. I had no idea he plays for the Bears now and will more than likely be Oprah's replacement, at least that's what he told us.**