Game on, summer, game on.

Because my personality type can be best described as “A”, I had written down “playground” in my agenda for today, the first day of summer vacation. Even writing this, I feel a bit lame. I mean, “playground” on the to-do list? But hey, we all have our quirks, right? Even if mine tend toward the lame and nerdy.

With all the horrible weather of late, we had not been visiting many playgrounds, and the particular playground I planned for today’s outing is one that we hadn’t been to since last summer. The morning was unusually warm, and the boys were excited, and I remembered to pack bug spray and put ice in the water bottles, I had a blanket in the car for a picnic snack, and really the morning could not have been better. I looked around at the other moms there and felt a certain kind of sympathy for the very tired looking ones, who were chasing toddlers but also carrying tiny babies in slings or car seats. I looked at my own hooligans, climbing and running and happy, and I felt like I had become one of those moms that I used to be jealous of – with little kids but not too little; little enough to be happy to be at the playground with their mother, but not so little that they were clinging like barnacles onto the ship that is my body.

The rest of the day passed very pleasantly, with waffles and water squirters, and lots of imaginative play. I felt like a rockstar of a mom: I didn’t raise my voice even once today, which must be some kind of record. I foresaw issues before they became issues and resolved them. I felt relaxed and happy. Today, I was the kind of parent that I want to be.

It was the perfect start to the summer.