On my way to pick her up from her first camp I imagined that she wouldn't be happy to see me at all. What with her reaction upon my returning with her sneakers the day I dropped her off? I thought for sure she would say that she didn't want to go home.
Instead I was pleasantly surprised when I received this greeting:
"MOM! MOM! MOM!" screamed at the top of her lungs as she ran all the way to me with arms opened wide and then gave me a big, tight, lingering hug. I guess she missed me after all.
And then that was short-lived.
She fell asleep on the way home. Just over an hour later she woke up, disoriented, and said, "Where we going now?" Me, "Home." K, "No!" Then she fell back to sleep for about 5 more minutes.
Woke up and said, "Mom?" Me, "What Kayla?" "I want to go back to camp." she managed to get out before the tears. "I want to go back to camp now." And then she sobbed. And sobbed.
She refused to get out of the truck when we got home. Wouldn't give Joe or Lucas a hug after I finally managed to carry her inside.
Lucas tried to cheer her up to no avail. She was despondent. She kept saying she wanted to go back to camp now.
I thought a good night sleep would help and she would be back to her usual perky self in the morning.
Not so much.
When she woke up she stayed in her bed crying about wanting to go to camp and see all her friends.
I told her we had to get up, get dressed, eat breakfast and take Lucas to VBS and then she had to help me get some things at the store.
When we returned home I sent her upstairs to get her glasses that she left on her dresser. She never came back downstairs. She stayed in her crying off and on for about 2 hrs. I could hear dresser drawers open and close. I could hear her talking to herself. I knew I had to let her work it out for herself, because up until then she didn't want any comforting.
When it was time to get Lucas I went upstairs to find Kayla back in her pjs and in bed. She had also repacked her suitcase - she put all the contents of her pajama/socks/underwear drawers in her suitcase.
It took about 1/2 a day before she finally was more like herself and she went outside to play with Lucas.
I'm glad she had such a great, fun, amazing time at camp, but wow! Emotional overload!
She did better coming home from her second camp though. Maybe she was resigned to the fact that she was going to come home whether she wanted to or not! Or maybe it was because this camp was only 3 nights away. Joe said she was a little sad and quiet on the way home, but it was nothing like when she came home the first time.
I'm so glad she had the opportunity to attend both of these camps and have a little bit of 'amazing' built in to her summer!
3 comments:
glad she had a wonderful time at both camps and wanted to go back. a little bit of independence you gave to her. :} love memaw
Wow, guess Kayla had that great of a time at camp! Good for her! Has she told you any of what she did there?
I guess she really liked camp! I'm glad she had such a great time. I imagine she made some great memories while she was away.
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