Gotta go back to school again

Today, William returned to school after a three-week winter break. Good grief, three weeks is a long time. I don't know who was more glad to arrive at his school this morning: me or him. We have spent a lot of time together over the past three weeks, and I think we both needed to get back to our usual routine.

Apparently that's a common sentiment. Every mom I ran into at school had a variation of the same thing to say: Yes, Christmas was great, a little hectic, but fun, and oh man, I sure am glad the kids are going back to school at last. I guess we were all ready for a little downtime after several weeks of lots and lots of quality time. Quality time spent inside. I don't think I need to spell out what that means.

But lest I sound cold and unfeeling, I will say I'm sympathetic to the plight of the cooped-up toddler. It's got to be hard to be energetic and active and have to stay inside a small house because it's cold, rainy and altogether miserable outside, let alone have to do so for most of three weeks. Let alone be quiet and relatively calm while doing so. Especially when Christmas cookies are also involved.

Despite the fun of the holidays, it was a looooong break. Finally, finally on Saturday, there was a break in the weather. I took William to Cheekwood, since we have a new membership, courtesy of my parents. We worked on an art project together in the learning center, and then I just let him run as fast as he could up and down the various trails. He joined an impromptu soccer game, and I just let him work out some of that pent-up energy until he actually volunteered that he was tired.

Here's the little prince, mugging for the camera in between his sprinting and his soccer game:



















Admit it: you can see the energy radiating off him, can't you?
















We went back to Cheekwood again yesterday, even though it was raining. We pulled up the hoods to our raincoats and walked around. It wasn't as invigorating as Saturday's trip, since William couldn't really run around. But at least we weren't inside. I just couldn't deal with staying inside the house again.

I also admit to feeling a little bit bad for William's teachers when I dropped him off in his classroom today. Can you imagine having a dozen small kids with cabin-fever dropped off on your doorstep? Whew. They were still alive when I arrived to pick him up, but I'm thinking they might have earned combat pay today...