This camp is for 5 nights and 6 days. I'll miss being able to tell her goodnight every night, but I imagine that Kayla is fully enjoying herself!
She enjoys going to hotels and looks forward to swimming in the hotel pool. This camp takes the kids to the pool two times a day. She'll be thrilled with that opportunity!
The morning we took her to camp she was up bright and early; as per usual for her! It was around 615. She came downstairs, fully dressed, and I heard her open the closet door. She was getting out her shoes. She was ready to go. This, despite the fact that the rest of us were clearly still in bed and not the least bit ready to go anywhere.
I mumbled to her that it was only 640 and not time to go anywhere. "What about camp?" was her reply. Soon, Kayla, soon, just not now. I convinced her to snuggle in our bed and she was obviously still tired as she fell asleep within a few minutes.
When we pulled into the parking lot of the camp; hadn't even parked yet, she excitedly yelled, "Bye Mom! Bye Dad! Bye Lucas!" as if we were just going to let her hop out of the van and then be on her way!
No qualms from her whatsoever about us leaving her there.
It probably helped that her BFF was also at camp. In the same cabin. They were going to get to spend a whole week together along with another girl they both know.
Funny story: When we arrived at camp I realized I forgot to pack her sneakers (I just knew I was going to forget something!). Thankfully there is a town about 15 minutes away so we found a shoe store and bought her some sneakers. We returned to camp to drop them off. I was walking towards the dining hall where they had just finished lunch, but Kayla was already outside with her counselor (the singing was too loud for her). Her counselor pointed me out and Kayla's face immediately fell. She held on to her counselor's arms and I could hear her say, "I don't want to go home!" She was not happy to see me. Poor girl thought I was coming back to get her before even spending one night there! I assured her I was just bringing her some sneakers and she could stay.
I'm so excited for her to have this experience; I just wish I would be able to hear more about her time there. While she will be able to tell me about it, it will probably be limited in information.
It's definitely quiet around here. And Lucas obviously misses her as the next morning after drop-off the first thing he said after we were all out of bed was, "Now what?" Ha! He didn't have his playmate with him.
This is just another step towards independence and letting go ... for her and for me!
2 comments:
Lucas is too funny! "Now what?" Oh my. I guess he's going to be very happy when Kayla gets home, right? Better take him to a lot of those classes at Michael's! :D
Wow you are so brave letting her go to camp! Not sure if I am up to that yet with Matilda. But we don't have such a culture of camps here in Australia, I think you guys have better camps.
What about giving an ipod to the counsellor and asking them to record bits of activities that Kayla does, take pics of her doing activities etc. Then you can at least see some of the stuff she has been doing.
On a side note, my niece is working at Falling Creek camp in North Carolina this summer (all the way from Australia) She is teaching horse riding and having a ball!
Post a Comment