Then End of an Era

Somehow, I missed the last day I worked from home with a kid underfoot.  Part of it was my preoccupation with turning 40. Part of it is that I am a creature of routine, and my routine changes a bit at the end of the semester-- only this semester my final exam was on a normal workday, and it all just sort of ran together.  Part of it is the simple truth that the days are long and the years are short, and I spent so much time just crossing things off my list (adjuncting online, the morning rush, preschool pick up, preschool lunchtime, laundry, dinner prep, dance, etc) that I didn't really notice the days slipping by.

After school today, Dorothy will have 9 days of preschool left.

I am not working right now, though, just enjoying her when she gets home.  This little halcyon window is lovely, but it's not the same as the particular passage of time I forgot to mark.

I meant to note the last day of the juggle that's been my life for almost 12 years, to mark the end of this time with... something?  I wanted to take a breath and savor the last day when I tried to pass as a working mom at work and a stay-at-home-mom after preschool mornings, to commemorate this specific kind of maternal gymnastics.

I am thrilled that we have made it through the little kid years and that next year, we can both work full days during school hours-- imagining the luxury of all of that time is overwhelming.

But.

We walked around the zoo for 3 hours yesterday, her sticky hand in mine, no place to be other than right there with our picnic and the tube of red lipstick we shared.  After our fill of animals and her favorite zoo ice cream sandwich, we walked almost all the way to the car and she said, "Oh! I forgot to see the flamingos," and since flamingos are her favorite color, we had to go all the way back in and through the winding zoo path to the very center by the carousel (which we rode 3 times) to see them.  And as long as we were there, we swung by the red panda, too, and she climbed all the way to the top of a huge slide with a pack of rowdy field trip kids and came tumbling out the tube, sweaty and red-cheeked.

These interminable years have gone so fast after all.

Dressed for the zoo

Carousel rides require red lips

She's so big she wants to buy the carousel tokens herself

But she's so little she can still only ride on the bench because carousels are scary

SAND!  It;s even glittery.  And filled with the germs of a thousand field trippers.

I made this sandwich at 8 am during my fasting window and pretty much dreamed about it all morning.

Bucky on Parade!  We have seen 8/85

She stood in an actual line to take this pic

For Cooper because penguins are his fave

Still not a gibbon.

She said Oh wait, can I ride on this? so how could I say no?

We saw the actual tortoises.  The door to their enclosure was open so they could choose to be inside or in their little fenced-in yard, and how long do you think it took them to make the journey outside?

We fell down taking a selfie.