There is, despite our daily busy-ness, a gentleness to summer. Heat slows us down and quiets us a little, I think. The extra daylight feels like more time - time to swim, time to grill, time to hang out. It's lovely, even when it rains or looks cloudy!
Babygirl is still suffering, though. Her headaches are harder to ignore without the demand of a rigorous schedule of school or teaching. And I think the summer desire of every teenager to stay up late and sleep in is playing a role in the uptick in headache frequency. And her lack of local play buddies is keeping her too much indoors. Last summer there were kids in the pool all the time. This summer, I have to drag her in. She was in school so little that she had very little time for socialization. And she is, by nature, shy and a bit retiring. What made her active in the past was a houseful of busy sisters and a good neighborhood friend (whose move to Florida makes her sadly missed).
When Citygirl was little there were nearly a dozen kids within a one block radius who were near to her age. The fact that the vast majority of them were boys only expanded her sports horizons! She was, and remains, gregarious and outgoing, the center of every photo that has ever been take of any group of her friends. JuJuBee, Curlygirl and Bella had each other and their own school friends. Babygirl had Littleman and Gigi, but they left, and she really only had two neighborhood kids her age, and both have moved.
I'm not sure what, if anything, I can do about this. I've suggested babysitting, becoming a local Mother's Helper, volunteer work..... but basically, if I'm not going with her, she doesn't want to go. And the unpredictability of her health clearly makes it tough to make her participate consistently in anything. She's not a fan of sports - her vision issues make ball sports pure terrifying torture.
I'd be open to suggestions for how to help her more!
DeeDee
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