filling the summer

Sometimes it feels like the summer of 2009 will be my last summer in the city. As things stand now, it won't be (so don't worry, all you who live vicariously through my adventures here). But in a way, it is a "last summer" of sorts: the last summer I will have as the mother of only one child, the last few months that I will be able to trek around the city in the same way I have been doing. By September I will have a toddler and a newborn, and once I recover from giving birth and am ready to explore the great outdoors again, I have absolutely no idea, when looking at the future from my pregnant and exhausted early May point of view, how I'll ever be brave enough or strong enough to leave my house again. Oh, I'm sure I'll figure it out. Mothers seem to have a knack for solving problems, however daunting the dilemma might be. But still, from where I'm standing now, I see myself as having only a few short months to hurry and do all I can before my time runs out.

So what do I do? I make lists. Lists of things I want and need to do this summer before the baby comes. And then I set about checking things off those lists, because we list-makers know there's very little more satisfying than a to-do item completed and crossed out. Here is a glimpse of a few of my summer to-do lists:

Places in NYC I want to see/visit

• The Transit Museum
• The Little Red Lighthouse under the George Washington Bridge
• Ride the tram to and explore Roosevelt Island
• The Museum of the City of New York
• Taste test at a few famed eateries, including Shake Shack and Artichoke Pizza
• Brooklyn Bridge Park
  

Places outside of the city I want/need to visit

• My aunt and uncle's home in the New Jersey suburbs so I can escape and recover from daily life
• Southern California in June for my brother-in-law's wedding
• A Long Island beach

Preparations we need to make for the baby

• Buy a "big boy bed" for Garrett so the baby can sleep in his crib (we're leaning towards a bunk bed -- we'll have two boys, so it will certainly get used, and while the baby bunks in the crib, an extra bed for visitors can't hurt)
• Rearrange Garrett's room so we can fit both boys
• Finish sewing my baby quilt
• Buy a baby book (I'm leaning toward this one) and a blank journal for Number Two

There's more, I assure you, but because I have a tendency to crowd my lists to the point where they make me both prematurely worn out and a little dizzy, I thought I'd spare you the exhaustion with just a sampling. And now, as soon as it stops raining here already, I can set out and start checking things off.