EVERYTHING
FOR YOUR FAMILY
KID
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I told her he was at the dentist having oral surgery. She said, "Oh, so they're just gonna talk about it?" READ MORE
Editor's Note
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Away for the first time, home for the near future OK, the bus was pulling in but it looked more than half-empty. Where were the campers? “They’re hiding under the seats!” a parent yelled out. Listen, pal, I thought, I’ve waited a full week for this moment. They had BETTER be hiding. And they were. The twins’ first-ever weeklong church camp – and the first time away from mom and dad except for the nights at grandma and grandpa’s – had come to an end. “Hey, dad!” Nathan, 8, yelled in one of those Norman Rockwell moments, his head emerging with his elbows hanging out of a half-opened window. But, where was Christopher? “There you are!” I yelled as Christopher followed Nathan down the steps; children ran in all directions into loving arms. It was time to go home. No, it was time for home. Christopher had had the best of times and the most quivering of lips as homesickness set in on day 2. “Then Jay (his counselor) gave me some advice,” he told us. “‘If you just have fun, the days are going to go by fast, and then you’ll get to go home and see your mom and dad.’” At the moment of debarkation, older brother Nicholas, 12, was at his own sleepover camp – three nights and four days at a lacrosse competition at the University of San Diego. Honestly, though, it’s not the same. We’re excited for him; we really missed the twins. He is nearly a teenager; they don’t begin third grade until this month. You don’t start separating from a child until he starts separating from you. Until then, they remain little, by every definition. “I learned to make stew,” Christopher announced as I sized up Nathan’s dirt-caked legs. There was no hot water at the Big Bear camp – though there was the lake – so Nathan opted to take only one shower. I don’t blame him. I share his slender body type, and cold water chills to the bone. “Isn’t that the same shirt you left wearing?” mom asked Nathan. “Yes,” he said, his glasses a few shades away from clear, “but I changed my pants.” “Daddy, guess what!” Christopher announced as we sat down at a bagel shop to get caught up (and, incidentally, to wash hands). “I now like pancakes.” That’s good news. This afternoon, I will go to the supermarket, gladly buy the pricey real maple syrup and get ready for the morning. “One thing I learned when you two were gone,” I told them in my own announcement of the day, “you guys are really noisy, because it was really quiet!” In the silence of tomorrow morning, the pancakes will be ready when the noise we missed so much awakes to a blessed pair of pitter-pattering feet. “Thank you for my children,” I told mom before we met the bus. “Thank you, thank you.” Craig Reem Executive Editor |
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