Summer checklist

I wanted to make a list of things to do this summer. I know, that sounds really boring...

Deliver seven crowns and a pair of dentures
Do two root canals
Finish all my surgery requirements

I have a ton of school stuff I want to accomplish this summer, before the clinics fill up with the incoming class and things get crazy with boards and the countdown to graduation. But that's not what I wanted to make a list for.

I want a list of fun things. I want to have an amazing summer, like we did last year. I know that it's going to be tough, because I'm going to be caring for Caroline alone and doing the dental school thing. (I am doing that right now, in fact, since Tyler has been away for over two weeks already and won't be back for almost another week... I'm pretty tired, but hanging in there.) So I want to make sure I keep in mind all of the fun things I want to happen so that they don't get lost in the shuffle.

I tend to forget sometimes, in the midst of the craziness and stress of school, that I shouldn't just be surviving these years. I, we, should be enjoying them. I still need to be the mom I want to be, because neither of us are going to get this time back again. Caroline reminded me of that today. We had been up most of the night because she's been working on three new teeth. I'd had a long day and was lying on the floor of the nursery, watching her play after dinner. She figured out how to climb up on her little armchair and then climb off again. She was so excited. She must have done it about 20 times in a row, laughing hysterically, and crawling to me and smushing her face into my face and then crawling back to the chair to climb up again. I thought, wow, when was the last time I was that excited about anything? I have no idea. But I want to be excited about little things like that.

This may not be making much sense because I am actually so tired that I feel like I'm high. But I want to see things through Caroline's eyes and be excited about this summer, rather than just getting through it. Here are a bunch of things that I want to do:

Go to the farmer's market instead of the supermarket for groceries
Finger-paint with Caroline, and make a giant mess
Nap by the pool under an umbrella
Bring Caroline to the aquarium where Tyler and I had our wedding reception
Picnic by a waterfall with another mama/baby friend
Go strawberry picking
Have a girls' night out, and wear something fabulous
Take Caroline to the beach for the first time
Splurge on a spa treatment
Take an afternoon off from school and spend it just hanging out with Caroline
Go to a fair
Take a trip to the zoo

That's all I can think of at the moment. It's going to be a great summer!