a taste of summer

The Pre-K kids in Garrett's integrated preschool class are having their graduation ceremony today. Rather than make the younger students sit in a stuffy auditorium all morning, they let them have the day off. So, a few days ahead of schedule, the boys and I got a taste of what our summer has the potential to be like. Since we've all been craving a change of scene/routine, my goal was to spend as much of the day as possible out of the house (but to also make it home before the forecasted late afternoon thunderstorms arrived). Here's a glimpse of how things went down.


Wake up. Do all of our usual morning things like eat breakfast and get dressed. Threaten Garrett and Caleb several times that if they don't stop screaming/fighting/hitting right this minute, our scheduled trip to the zoo would be canceled.

Ride the R train; transfer to the Q. At the Prospect Park stop, get off. As we make our exit from the train, listen to Garrett tell me, "Ah, we did it. We here. Good job, Mom. High five."

Meet Whitney and Baby Blake at the entrance to the zoo. Once admitted, head straight to the barn to feed and pet the goats and sheep. Later, find ducklings and feed them, too.


Once we've exhausted the zoo (or been exhausted by it, take your pick), head across the street to Wendy's for lunch, where Garrett orders "chichen uggets, fries, and chapup."

Back to the train. Ride the Q and transfer to the D. Say goodbye to Whitney and Baby Blake. (Thanks again, guys! We had fun!) Ride all the way to Bay Parkway. Tell some poor lost souls en route that they've been heading in the wrong direction for an unfortunately long time and should get off this Coney Island-bound train and onto a Manhattan-bound one stat. Exit the subway and walk half a mile. Along the way, tell Garrett that we're going to a toy store and concoct a ruse involving getting toys for his cousin, Henry, so that he hopefully won't guess that I'm actually doing a bit of birthday shopping in his presence.

At Toys R Us, head straight to the section with fire trucks. Compare different models while the boys push every "try me!" button, illuminating the aisle with flashing lights and loud battery-requiring noises. Make purchase and leave the store, feeling fairly confident that Garrett was so dizzy from the general awesomeness of such an enormous toy store (or perhaps just blinded by all those flashing lights) that he doesn't realize the fire truck I just bought is actually for him.

Walk to the bus. Resist stopping at another Wendys' for Frosties, not because I don't deserve one, but because I don't want to wait in that line. Climb aboard our bus and wrestle with Caleb, who had decided it would be a lot of fun to throw a big fit for a large crowd of people, until we get off to transfer to another bus. While we wait for the next bus, calm Caleb down by bribing him with animal crackers and forgive him his trespasses when he politely (and instinctively, I might add) says, "Day doo!" as he stuffs each one I give him into his mouth.

Board one final bus and ride it into our neighborhood. Get the boys home where everyone (except Caleb, of course) crashes into a semi-comatose state. Spend the rest of the afternoon recovering from the events of the day.


Did we survive? Mostly, yes. Will we survive the rest of the summer? Boy, I hope so. Garrett goes back on Monday for one last day of school, and then it's just us, summer, and the small arsenal of adventures I've been stockpiling to aid us in the battle of summer survival (with, hopefully, our sanity in tact). So, ready or not, here we go.