The Orange Dress

Settling Eileen into bed this evening...


E: I love you Mommy. 
(in my head thinking how much I love the un-prompted phrase my child just uttered..)
Me: I love you too Monkey.
E: You're just such a good helper. 

Well. I'll take what I can get, right?!  


With each passing day, her sense of humor gets better and better. We have an almost six year old cynic. Is that bad? I certainly have not a clue where she'd have picked that up.... 

She's been at Summer Camp for two days now. She LOVES it. Which is not to say she didn't love all her years at MStar.. this is just different and new and they are outside almost all day. Not to mention swimming twice a day, every day, all summer. I want to suggest to the camp director that they stick the kids in a classroom and start a Summer Camp for the Mommies and Daddies. Who's with me? 

Summer. 
Watermelon. Swimming. Ice Cream Trucks. Daylight until 9pm. Fireflies. Blazing hot days and warm evenings. Flip Flops. Dresses. Lemonade (with or without additional enhancements) and lemonade stands. Sangria. Flowers. Fresh Cut Grass. Tan faces and tanned legs. Eating on patios. Beer Market afternoons. Boats and Lakes. Lazy nights after work letting the kids play. Windows open with radio playing that one song that comes along every Summer to make you always remember that Summer. Bocce ball or Cornhole .. beer in one hand and sporting apparatus in the other. I could go on and on...

There is also..The Orange Dress. 
I am fairly certain I shall never part with this dress. 
I bought it years ago, on sale at jcrew.com. I know it was before Eileen was born, quite possibly when we still lived in our apartment. 


It's a super casual bright orange dress. Sleeveless. Just above the knee. Shift Dress. These days more of a potato sack. It has pockets and is certainly faded. And there is no more comfortable article of clothing I have owned. Ever. 

And each year when I put it on for the first time, Summer has Officially Arrived. There was a time I could have worn it to work, or to a laid back dinner or afternoon cocktails. Now it is more of a running errands dress or hanging out after the pool dress. 


Today was the first day of Orange Dress 2012. 
Josh and Bill were heading to the storage place to get a couple of things out. So we decided to get takeout and eat together at the Loebners, then let the men go move heavy things while Sarah and I did bath time and played with the girls. 

So after a day at work and a somewhat warm evening, coupled with a grumbly tummy that wanted nothing to do with any sort of actual waist band... I stood staring blankly at my closet trying to decide what to throw on that wasn't pajamas. 


And the Orange Dress flung itself from its hanger and slapped me upside the head. Putting it on literally makes me giddy. 


I ran into the den to announce Summer's Arrival to Bill. Somehow instead I managed to scare the shit out of him as he chilled on the couch, which somewhat ruined the moment. Eh. Who cares?

It is SUMMER TIME PEOPLE. 

Don't let it pass you by.