Re-entry

While on our first family vacation in years (pure fun…no weddings, commitments, or musts), I read an Insta post from a local mom of four littles. It was labeled “Day 4864 of Winter Break”. I remember those days, when ten days off from school seemed like a lifetime. The circled date on the calendar when we returned to school and work was the pot of gold at the end of the holiday insanity rainbow. Back to structure and order…the system that calmed the chaos.

Where am I? You know that feeling when you forget you’re back home. The dog and two cats snuggling against me were a clue, as was the dark dark room, the clock reading 6:25am was the final tipoff. I was in New York, our kid was 3000 miles away, the holiday was over…back to reality.

Re-entry is harder when vacation mode was so much fun.

Back to the morning routine. Wash up, wait…who is that person in the mirror, they look 110 years old…oh yeah, they are still on California time. Feed the animals, feed the Christmas tree, straighten the house, wait for my little morning charge to show up.

Sunshine and energy bursts into the house, there is nothing better than having a 5 year old for an hour a day. Kat, it will be my birthday soon (it is in late March). Kat, I want 24 pieces (I cut his French toast strips into 24 pieces so he doesn’t choke to death on my watch), Kat, does Jasmine still love me so much? (yes, she loves you and your French toast droppings). Kat, what will we do now? (no more advent calendar of lego brilliance to keep us busy every morning).

I give him a little souvenir from California…plastic astronauts, rockets, and vehicles purchased at the Griffith Observatory after an amazing tour by our son’s partner, Ella. Ella loves space and stars…and she is beyond knowledgeable and I actually understood the tour when she switched to her “observatory goodness for 4th graders” mode. We were invited behind closed doors to see the “huge telescope in the center dome” and the “view the sun in real time contraption in the little dome”. People who actually have knowledge of science and space are probably getting hives at the descriptions of those beyond special places… I apologize that I got to see them. Greg immediately started using the toys to teach rockets, launchers, and who the first men on the moon were…Dillon soaked it all in. Kat, how do Neil and Buzz get back for dinner? I explained that they would ride part of the rocket back. Re-entry, back to normal…home for dinner.

Home…doing chores, tons of laundry, filling the fridge, opening mail, and getting in back to work mode. Taking down the holiday decorations and tree can wait, I want to savor that a bit longer. January needs some bling.

Halfway on our walk to school, my little man looked up and asked…Kat, why are you wearing those shoes? Hmmmm…I still had my slippers on.

Re-entry takes time.