summer camp, some are not...and we ARE
May. 30th, 2010 08:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deadlightsgirl I had been worried about camp this summer, about the frequency with which kiddo and I plan to make the two-hour drive to get up there, often without a wingman.
Today was our test drive, literally and figuratively. I loaded up the car with snacks and her favourite CD, said a prayer, and we left a little after 9 this morning.
What a good girl! Now, you have to understand that the seat belt that can restrain Gracie has not been invented. She can get out of anything and has even been known to open the door while the car is moving. I was, naturally, worried.
But no! About halfway through the ride (and still on the boring highway bit with nothing good to look at), she did escape from her car seat, and I had to pull over to buckle her back in. But that was it! Both ways! She slept for about half an hour of the return trip (which I hope won't mess up bedtime too badly), but otherwise, she listened to her music, sang, got VERY excited whenever we passed a field with cows, and directed me (correctly) the last half hour to camp.
Once we got there, Auntie Beth rounded up a lovely counselor to help wrangle. Gracie went off with Sarah seemingly happily, but really hadn't been ready to go exploring without Mama just yet (live and learn), and Sarah needed to get used to the concept of Gracie, so there were some tantrums that first hour while I went to lunch...but we'll know better for next time (and really, she seemed happy to go off without me, said "bye Mama", which usually means she plans to be fine without me). Once we were reunited, Sarah came up to our house with us so I could check on the state of it and unload the stuff I had brought up this trip - the plan is to move us up a bit at a time, bringing only clothes Gracie will outgrow by the end of the summer, so I can turn them right over to her cousins, and not have to bring them home again. She was happy to be in our camp house, and then after she had some lunch there which I had brought, we went down to meet up with Grandpa for a ride in his swanky new gator and a visit at his house with him and Nanna Barbara. Yes, she ran around, and if I hadn't had Sarah with us, I wouldn't have gotten any visiting in. But both dad and Barbara could see the progress she has made, both talking and listening.
We popped by the new health centre, which is gorgeous and I think is going to inspire a summer of hypochondria, since it is so nice everyone is going to want to stay there. And by then it was around 4:30 and Gracie was ready to go home...though she did insist we stop for ice cream first, and who could blame her?
All in all, a VERY successful day, and a load off my mind when thinking about the rest of the summer (and I think more often than not, upcoming trips will have a wingman). We'll see how she handles actual camp with program going on, but she was excited to be there, and anyway, the car trips were my biggest concern. I told her no more trips to McDonald's Playland when she asked...she's kind of big for that and had a tendency to get naked when she was there last year. We'll see what bits of camp work with her this year (I'm thinking fine arts in addition to pool and horses, plus a cute circus staffer offered to give her some solo circus time at rest hours). We'll see what I will teach in addition to fight club - maybe yoga again, plus I have asked to help with the fighting in West Side Story, and I don't know if I'll be directing that thing...it will get figured out, and our house is even getting sorted and cleaned by an office staffer who needs crash space for his visiting parents (from Scotland) for 2 nights and I agreed to do him a favour if he helped us get set up (only one night of overlap with us, and I can bunk with Gracie for one night).
Now she is happily eating some spaghetti with sauce (yay, some veggies with her carbs), will take a bath, and hopefully go to bed not too much past regular bedtime. No school tomorrow, so it doesn't matter if she's up a little late.
Gracie FTW! Queen of Awesome! Happy Mama! Good things all round!
Today was our test drive, literally and figuratively. I loaded up the car with snacks and her favourite CD, said a prayer, and we left a little after 9 this morning.
What a good girl! Now, you have to understand that the seat belt that can restrain Gracie has not been invented. She can get out of anything and has even been known to open the door while the car is moving. I was, naturally, worried.
But no! About halfway through the ride (and still on the boring highway bit with nothing good to look at), she did escape from her car seat, and I had to pull over to buckle her back in. But that was it! Both ways! She slept for about half an hour of the return trip (which I hope won't mess up bedtime too badly), but otherwise, she listened to her music, sang, got VERY excited whenever we passed a field with cows, and directed me (correctly) the last half hour to camp.
Once we got there, Auntie Beth rounded up a lovely counselor to help wrangle. Gracie went off with Sarah seemingly happily, but really hadn't been ready to go exploring without Mama just yet (live and learn), and Sarah needed to get used to the concept of Gracie, so there were some tantrums that first hour while I went to lunch...but we'll know better for next time (and really, she seemed happy to go off without me, said "bye Mama", which usually means she plans to be fine without me). Once we were reunited, Sarah came up to our house with us so I could check on the state of it and unload the stuff I had brought up this trip - the plan is to move us up a bit at a time, bringing only clothes Gracie will outgrow by the end of the summer, so I can turn them right over to her cousins, and not have to bring them home again. She was happy to be in our camp house, and then after she had some lunch there which I had brought, we went down to meet up with Grandpa for a ride in his swanky new gator and a visit at his house with him and Nanna Barbara. Yes, she ran around, and if I hadn't had Sarah with us, I wouldn't have gotten any visiting in. But both dad and Barbara could see the progress she has made, both talking and listening.
We popped by the new health centre, which is gorgeous and I think is going to inspire a summer of hypochondria, since it is so nice everyone is going to want to stay there. And by then it was around 4:30 and Gracie was ready to go home...though she did insist we stop for ice cream first, and who could blame her?
All in all, a VERY successful day, and a load off my mind when thinking about the rest of the summer (and I think more often than not, upcoming trips will have a wingman). We'll see how she handles actual camp with program going on, but she was excited to be there, and anyway, the car trips were my biggest concern. I told her no more trips to McDonald's Playland when she asked...she's kind of big for that and had a tendency to get naked when she was there last year. We'll see what bits of camp work with her this year (I'm thinking fine arts in addition to pool and horses, plus a cute circus staffer offered to give her some solo circus time at rest hours). We'll see what I will teach in addition to fight club - maybe yoga again, plus I have asked to help with the fighting in West Side Story, and I don't know if I'll be directing that thing...it will get figured out, and our house is even getting sorted and cleaned by an office staffer who needs crash space for his visiting parents (from Scotland) for 2 nights and I agreed to do him a favour if he helped us get set up (only one night of overlap with us, and I can bunk with Gracie for one night).
Now she is happily eating some spaghetti with sauce (yay, some veggies with her carbs), will take a bath, and hopefully go to bed not too much past regular bedtime. No school tomorrow, so it doesn't matter if she's up a little late.
Gracie FTW! Queen of Awesome! Happy Mama! Good things all round!
