New Kid in Town

Today, I dropped off our 7-year old son at day camp. He had been at day camp in our old hometown, but this was his first day at the new camp. It has been about one month since his last day of camp back in Kansas City, and my husband and I thought it was time for him to start interacting with kids his age again. It has been great having all this family time together, but we wanted to make sure our son was not regressing by spending so much one-on-one time with his little sister. So we signed him up for one week of day camp (ooh, don't get too ambitious, Map! A whole week, really?).

This morning's drop off went okay. First, we had to find it. We had no problem driving to the location, but once there, had to find the specific drop off site. We peered into a noisy room, and found what appeared to be the summer day camp meeting place. With both the children in tow, I approached a girl with a clipboard. She cheerfully said, "Yes this is the day camp. We start the activities in about half an hour; in the meantime he can go play." Go play? I looked around and saw neither toys nor sports equipment. Just a bunch of kids sitting in small groups, seemingly divided into age groups. They were talking and laughing amongst each other. Oooh. There is a group of kids his age. Hmm what are they all looking at, as I noticed the members of a small group circled around one boy. Then, I turned to the cheerful, though not necessarily hospitable camp counselor, and asked, "Are there any children my son's age whom you can introduce him to?" "Oh, sure! John, Danny, come here and meet, umm, what is your son's name?" I told her, and the boys came over, and were very friendly. They then ran off chasing each other over a hula hoop. Hmm. This is gonna be a little more difficult than I thought. I asked my son if he wanted to stay, and he shrugged his shoulders. "Well, lets go over to where those boys are playing, and see if you can join them." Without hesitation, he walked over, with me and his sister behind him, but once there, he clearly he did not look comfortable just joining the other kids, which I totally understand. Then, another counselor came over, and introduced herself. "Sara" talked to my son directly, asking him questions about himself. "Do you have a DS? A lot of the other boys like to play with their DS." Ah, that is what they were fascinated with over there. She proceeded to ask my son questions, and relay her new found information to the group of kids. "Oh wow, you are from Kansas? Cool!" the other children remarked. They seemed like a nice group of kids. I could sense my son feeling more at ease. Or was that me feeling more at ease?

I told my son it was time for me and his sister to go, and he seemed okay with it -not clingy, as I had anticipated he might be. "Maybe tomorrow I can bring my DS." "Maybe. Let's see how today goes. Have a great day," I said, as I kissed his forehead (oops, as soon as I did that, I realized I should have asked him first, as per our previous experiences with goodbye kisses from Mom in front of his friends back home . . . you know how boys this age get!). He didn't seem to mind the kiss this time, and said, "Okay. Bye, Mom."

I was very proud of him. I, myself, am pretty anxious about the move and being in unfamiliar surroundings, and may not have done as well if I had been in his shoes (we'll see how I do on my first day back in the OR after my month+ hiatus). We pick him in up in about an hour. Can't wait to see how the day went.