Working Vacation

Summer vacation is within reach. This week is the last for the Chicago schools, so Urban Dad is just aboutoutta there. He gave one set of finals on Friday, the rest are today and tomorrow. On Wednesday, Urban Kid 1 will get to teach his kids (the student teachers get younger and younger, I swear). Thursday and Friday to wrap things up, then everyone flees for the doors of the un-air-conditioned Great Big Urban High School.

So what are our first plans? To re-do the UK’s bedroom.

How best to do that? Ship them to Best Namma Ever!’s.

UK 1 will get to attend her first soccer class of the summer a week from tomorrow. Then I take her and UK2 to St. Louis. I stay for one big night, then I drive back the next day.

In the meantime, U-Dad will start taking everything out of their room and start spackling holes. We’ll paint the walls (we’ve been hard on this room, God love our landlord for keeping us!), then work out a new bed situation.

UK2 has always been long for her age. Ok, now that she’s fully mobile, perhaps “tall” is the word to use. I don’t know where she got it – I’m 5’6”, U-Dad is 5’9”. Ok, I know where… we’re both the shortest in our families, so she grabbed some tall genes from somewhere up one of the trees.
Anywhooooo, UK2 is now as long as her crib. It isn’t a standard-sized crib, but UK1 definitely lasted longer in it. If UK2 wants to stretch to full-length, she now goes corner to corner, poor thing.

So she’ll graduate to UK1’s toddler bed that UK1 really needs to get out of. UK1 will go on to a great-big-girl twin bed. And she wants purple bedding, thank-you-very-much.

U-Dad was a bit surprised by this: “There’s nothing between a toddler bed and a twin? Really? A twin bed?

She’s almost five, dude. It’s TIME. It’s been time!

Space is an issue, so we’re opting for this route:

We’ll tuck the toddler bed underneath. Voila! More floor space for another dresser and bookcase!

It's been forever since we've been without either UK. Alone. (UK1 arrived 11 months after our little living-room wedding.) What to do?

We’ll do the U-Dad’s 50th birthday dinner from yesterdays’ post. We’ll shop for a few things. We’ll go see some movies or rent a few that we’ve missed. We’ll open a few bottles ofwine. We’ll take long, meandering evening walks around the city. And what else? Gee, what else could we possibly do all alone just the two of us? How could two happily married adults spend a summer afternoon in the middle of the week with no kids around?

Huh. I’m stumped for ideas………