Friday, October 09, 2009

My Baby is Back

My beautiful boy is back. Aj was at 5th grade outdoor education for the last week. I dropped him off at school at 8 am on Monday and picked him up today, Friday, at 1 pm.
He went without an aide. Which is good. I send him to sports day camps and there is no additional staffing. I was most concerned about him following through to get dressed in the morning when he woke up full of energy and without ADHD medications. They did increase the the high school staff in his cabin from 1 to 2 high-achieving teen girls. As well, the staff was altered that Aj may need assistance.
I'm not sure who had more of an "experience" the 14 boys in the cabin or the 2 gals spending every night with them.
On Wednesday I had an email forwarded to me that said Aj was doing great and enjoying himself. That night we got a call from the teacher at camp. Aj was crying and homesick. Pops and I talked to him for a awhile and told him how proud of him we were of him. We talked about what he had to look forward to the next day and that after that he would be coming home. I asked the teacher if he'd had any "altercations". We had a few in the last week so I was worried about a command performance in the presence of additional stress. But she told me -no he'd been great. Today the teacher said Aj was fine after our Wed evening call.
Today at 1 pm in the school playground I was greeted by a dirty-faced smiling boy. He immediately launched into a story about the raccoon that got in their cabin last night. Evidently Alex forgot to take his Monday lunch left overs out of his lunch bag. Seemingly the 3-day-old odor drew in a raccoon. Other portions of the story included the raccoon throwing up and later peeing on one boys clothes. Alex is cautious and fearful of animals other than cats and dogs. So I was not surprised to hear he was distressed by the presence of the masked food thief.
"The cabin leader gave me 6 Oreos to cheer me up."
I am guessing beautiful-boy did not go right to sleep after the excitement of the raccoon and the sugar of the Oreos.
As we were driving home Aj said, "Are these my shorts?"
He said the shorts were falling off.
"Alex, are you thinking you might be wearing someone else shorts?"
"Yes."
Upon examination at home I think the waistband was not cinched on the inside of the shorts. It is also possible that my already-a-bit-too-skinny guy lost some weight. I think the shorts are form our house!?

At home I unpacked Aj's bags. I had given him 2 disposable cameras-but no pics for us.
I had packed a ziplock of clean underwear, another of clean socks and a large trash bag labelled "dirty clothes". The dirty clothes bag was half full. As was the ziplock of clean underwear.
I see a bath in his future.
Aj is reading over my shoulder. I asked him what his favorite part of the week was. He said Beach Day was his favorite. The best part of that was when one of the teachers and some other kids buried him in the sand up to his neck. (An SI kids idea of heaven).
Two or three years ago I would not have believed that my guy would go to outdoor ed without and aide and have such a successful and great time.
Pops and I are so very proud of our boy.

3 comments:

  1. 1. Hey, peoples reading this. I (unrelated to AJ) totally concur with Judy's description of AJ as "beautiful" -- on two counts. (a) He is more than nice to look at (b) He is a sweet fellow,and is shaping up to be a fine young man.

    2. Ignoring the opportunity for clean clothes? Totally age appropriate.

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  2. AJ is beyond beautiful. The kid is gorgeous. Those eyes, that hair. He melts me.

    My oldest is in 3rd grade and I am already stressing about outdoor ed in 5th grade. So proud of AJ and of you for being the mama that helped him grow to the point that he'd do well in OE.

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  3. I just loved reading this - how wonderful, how successful, a week for AJ. Congrats to you all.

    mb

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