Last Day of Camp (sort of) and Chayton’s Crawling!

So this was the last week of camp – sort of. It was the last week of regular (8 weeks) camp. The girls are going back on Monday for the 9th Week camp program – that’s the program for children of working parents who don’t take off the last two weeks of every August. So that would be us. The girls are happy – they get to keep going to camp and the best part is that their friend Ilayda will be with them all next week. We will take the last week of August off and run Camp Allen – but that will be a post for another week.

So with it being the last week of camp, both girls have at different times reached their camp-limit. For Kaija, it’s been on the Wednesday of the last three weeks. She’s needed a stay-at-home-recharge day (either that or she’s really been sick). But this past Wednesday, I wasn’t quite sure if she was pulling my leg or if she was really sick/tired. Of course, I had a meeting to got to at 8:45am and Courtney had left at 7:00am to get to a meeting in Philly that morning, so that meant I had just enough time to see the girls off on their bus, take Chayton to daycare, and walk in a few minutes late to my meeting. The plan didn’t have room for a sick child.

All morning, Kaija and I are talking and she keep telling me that she really doesn’t feel good, and that she isn’t going to go on the bus. The genius that I am, I come up with a great (so I thought) compromise – “How about you get on the bus, go to camp, and if you still feel sick after the fun starts, then go see the nurse and tell her to call me and I will come pick you up.” Made sense to me. It didn’t fly with Kaija. “I am NOT feeling good, I’ve told you this all morning, and I don’t like your compromise – it’s not a good choice. I am NOT GETTING ON THE BUS.”

So the bus pulls up. Nazeriah gives me a kiss and grabs her backpack/water bottle and is off; Kaija gives me a kiss, I reach down to help her with her backpack/water bottle and she is off – and I mean off and running. After kissing me she ran from the front sidewalk to our side door and was holding onto the door handle for dear life – crying, saying “I TOLD YOU, I’M NOT GOING TO CAMP.”

I first try talking some more to her, and realize I’m in a pickle. I have the baby, I don’t have a safe place to put him down (reason: see below), and there is no way that I will be able to forcefully get her on the bus. Even if I did get her on the bus kicking and screaming, what was this young teen-age bus counselor going to do to keep her on the bus? So, she didn’t get on.

Nazeriah was happy as a clam when I got on the bus to tell her Kaija was staying home, “Mommy, can I sit on the outside now?” Was all she wanted to know. “Sure, Sweetie, take the outside!” (See, Nazeriah and Kaija have an agreement – in the morning N sits on the inside of the seat, by the window; the afternoon K sits by the window – unless, of course, they decide to sit with other friends and then the agreement is null and void.)

The bus pulls away, Kaija gets a stern talking to (but just how stern could I be when she is telling me, rightly so, that I told you I wasn’t feeling good and wouldn’t get on the bus all morning. So true.

Off we go to take Chayton to school, then Kaija goes to my meeting with me (which we are on time for!), and spends the day with me at work. How that was more exciting than going to camp, I’ll never know. But, I did like the extra time that I got with her in between meetings, emails, and phone calls – there is always time for an extra snuggle!

Now, this leads to the second part of the post – Chayton is crawling!! On Monday he was still just sitting on all fours; by Tuesday he could take 3 “crawls;” and by Thursday I was told he was crawling all around the room at daycare. Needless to say, we have been re-baby proofing our house this weekend! He looks so cute cruising around. But when I move into the next room, he still doesn’t get it that he can follow me – just sits and cries. I’m sure he’ll figure it out fast enough! Such a cutie. Oh, and his two bottom teeth are in. How time is flying by.