I'm not kidding east coast friends, it is currently 53 degrees and pouring. I was planning to take the kids strawberry picking today, but we scrapped that plan. But it does, indeed, feel like summer.

You know we are taking swim lessons, but perhaps you don't understand what a summer ritual this is. Every summer since the kids were born, we've been taking daily swim lessons at the pool near my mom's house, the house I grew up in. We put on sunscreen in her front yard; we walk down to the pool, being careful not to get run over by the bicyclists on the Burke Gilman trail; we use up all her towels; and play with her puppets and dress up clothes. The kids have spent the last two hours playing school downstairs.

And by kids I mean mine and my sister's. It's not like we don't spend a lot of time with the cousins during the school year—we go to the same elementary, take many of the same after school classes, go to the same Sunday school, and eat dinner together every Tuesday. But, as the children are often complaining, it's not enough. I feel like I've overscheduled my kids this summer, but this week it's all hours of fun with the cousins.
Rose has started her annual start of summer room cleaning. With me at her side (this is without question also Mommy/Rose time) she goes through every possession in her room deciding what to get rid of and what should be played with more. Today she used the nail kit she got for Christmas to do her and David's nails, and tomorrow we are going to order the butterflies for a different kit. Her to-do pile includes Hebrew workbooks left over from Sunday School, and yes, she will do them.

Rose also made two summer resolutions: keep a journal and do things (like put away her clothes) the first time she is asked. Personally, I don't care if she puts her clothes away (yes, Rose, that's the kind of mom you have), but I'm very jealous of the journal. I always meant to keep a journal. You can even seen random pages from a diary I got around her age, but the entries are intensely boring, and I didn't keep it up. I did start a regular journal as my Jewish New Year's resolution senior year of high school and kept it up in one form or another (blog anyone?) ever since. So, I got there eventually.
After an intense conversation, she added one more journal entry: do three small nice things for David every day. Rose and David are reasonably good together. And then comes transition time and they fight constantly. So, this resolution was coming on the heels of her pushing him away when he tries to hug her, complaining that he never gets in trouble for hitting her after she has been mean to him (?), and refusing to play with him. I made the case that she would be happier if there was less strife between her and David, and she didn't have to do it all at once. She could take small steps. The first night she said, but I can't think of anything I've done today to be nice to him. I said, what about not getting mad when he and the neighbor kids wanted to use your red ball to play four square outside?

Part of the problem is she doesn't focus on the good in their relationship. I told her how I started this blog because she was being so mean to me after David was born, and I wanted to focus on the good moments between us. I told her the first couple days I could only find one good moment in the whole day, but thinking about her knowing my favorite color (purple she immediately said) made me happier. Rose then went into David's room. He was in bed and looked up warily. What? he said with that defensive tone, and then she gave him a hug.

Soon summer will mean lots of packing, trying to get to drama camp on time, playdate scheduling, and travel. But, right now, it's low key and grey. Very Seattle.