Not only was today Daniel's first day of camp, but it was his first experience away from me in an unfamiliar place. When I dropped him off at 9:00, he was stoic. A teenage boy carried him into the building, leaving me weeping in my car. As I called out to Daniel, "Have fun! I love you!" he looked at me over the boy's shoulder, eyes dry as a bone. As I found out later, he cried several times throughout the morning. His counselor explained to me, "Daniel was a little sad today." Apparently, however, all the little ones stopped crying by 9:30 and Daniel in particular rebounded quickly and was easily distracted by other activities. She also told me that he did very well for the first day. Considering that today was his first "school-like" experience without his Mommy EVER, it seems like he did pretty great!
When I picked him up at noon, I let Ollie stick his head out the driver's side window to greet him. Daniel really enjoyed that. He reached out to pet Ollie and even exclaimed, "Puppy!" When I put Daniel in his car seat, Ollie climbed into the back of the car and sat himself down next to Daniel. I think this gesture really cheered him up. I wish I could take credit for orchestrating it, but it was all Ollie! I gave Daniel a juice box when we got home, which he loved, and made him a nice big lunch. He ate beautifully, played for about 10 minutes, and went down for his nap without any fuss.
Taking into account how radically different today's routine was from any other day we've shared thus far, I'd say it was a successful day. Now I just have to get past my worries about Wednesday.
1 comment:
Daniel will certainly adjust to his new surroundings. How about kids that go to college for the first time? Many of them react the same way as Daniel did and they are alot older than he is. Missing mommy and daddy is normal and you missing Daniel and wondering what he is doing is normal. Years from now you will talk about this experience especially when he starts college.
Love - MOM and DAD :-)
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