My baby comes home from camp on Saturday. That's her and her best girl in the top photo taken during the camp 'fifties luncheon. And that's some of her fellow counselors in the second photo. I scrounged these off of Facebook. We drive up to get our girl from camp this weekend and then she's home for the summer until she goes to college next month. We're all going to visit my mom in St. Lucia for a week, and the rest of the time we'll be shopping for dorm room paraphernalia and she'll be hanging out with friends. One of the things I realize about when my kids are gone is that I also miss their friends. Even the ones I don't see all the time. I miss hearing about them. My daughter, for example, would no doubt have been happily counting down to The Dark Knight Rises movie release with her friend who loves Batman, and I would have felt sufficiently connected to what was going on with him. Truth be told, after our girl went to camp, and I was watching the basketball playoff finals with just my husband, I actually sent one of her friends a text saying "It doesn't feel quite right to be watching this without you," because he had watched all the games leading up to that one with us. He sweetly responded that it didn't feel right to him either. Now she's coming home and I'll get to see the five girls she calls her sisters, (some of who I see anyway when she's not here, because the moms are also friends) and also her high school clan, or at least I'll get to hear news of them. Life does shrink a bit when our children grow up and leave home. And then we have to fill it with new things so that it can expand and be rich again. Yes, I was one of those mothers who was endlessly entertained by her kids while they were growing up. There were few things I found more fascinating that their ever evolving selves. (Oh, who am I kidding? There was nothing that involved me more.) I still find them endlessly fascinating, I just don't have a front row seat anymore. Except sometimes. One of those times is coming up in two days. As my girl would say, Wheeeeeeeee!
Wow, I remember when you shopped for dorm stuff for your son to go off to college. Good grief, wasn't that last month? It sure seems like it.
ReplyDeleteI know that you can and will fill up your life with many amazing and fascinating new things, and I look forward to reading about them here.
Have a wonderful visit with your mother!
ellen, I know! when i started this blog my son was applying to college! i've learned a thing or two about college shopping since then! Number one, shop WITH the student. You're wasting your time otherwise.
ReplyDeleteAw. Yeah, I love it when Jessie comes home and I get to see her girlfriends again. I hug 'em up good. They mean a lot to me. I have watched them grow up and they are beautiful to me.
ReplyDeleteYou know? I still have friends who are my kids' friends. I have my very own relationship with some of them now. Grown-up relationships. It's cool.
Ms Moon, that is very cool. i think that will happen with some of her friends. i love that it has already begun. others, though, i will no longer see unless she is here. that's just the way of it. that's okay, too.
DeleteOoooohhhh. . . i saw that photo and said, "Hello, sweet girl!!" So full of light, that girl of yours. So full of light.
ReplyDeleteKimberly, but a trip to the salon is warranted, no? ;)
DeleteI know you are going to enjoy every minute of having your daughter close. Have a great trip visiting your mom.
ReplyDeleteAndrea, i surely will enjoy both my daughter and my mom, the two women i most enjoy spending time with! lucky me. thank you!
DeleteSavor these moments, Angella!
ReplyDeleteOnce my home was thrumming with the sound of boys, and now it's grown frightenly quiet. Perhaps I can get a recording of boys at play? You think?!
Dear T, i know about frighteningly quiet, as you put it. A recording won't be the same, unless it's playing in your memory. it was sweet while it lasted, even when i was yelling for them to calm down with the inevitable wrestling because they so often narrowly missed crashing headfirst into walls. with girls, it's the giggling and nonstop chatter. also a sweet sound, a little less nerve-wracking.
DeleteOh Geez, I never even thought about losing my kids' friends too when my kids move on. Stop stressing me!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I don't think I'll be texting Claire's boyfriends. That might be pushing it!
Have fun this weekend!
mark
Mark, um, if he's practically moved in then it will be no different than texting one of your own! I can't wait to hear how the teen years go down in your house!
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