Camping

June has been a whirlwind.  We had Kate's play, then all the end of the school year events, and then Dave and I took a trip to Chicago for our anniversary.  

But now the kids and I are camping.  Dave was even able to join us for the first day.  It's been so wonderful to have this time with them and no distractions.  I haven't even been able to get cell service, aside from a few minutes here and there on the beach, so there hasn't been a temptation to keep up with "all of that."  

We're at the beach now.  We just finished a second round of burying the kids in the sand, because apparently yesterday's marathon sand-removal shampoos in the disgusting camp showers didn't deter them from wanting to do it all again.

Now the kids are playing Nim's Island and I'm lying on the sand relaxing and writing this.

There really is something about camping.  (I'm not talking about the insane amount of mosquito bites everywhere on my body, the incredible amount of ash I ate in my meals, or the way my eyes still sting from last night's campfire.) There's something about getting away from normal life, without the busy-ness of some vacations, that makes you really connect with each other.

I've fallen in love with my kids even more these last couple days.  They've made me laugh so hard, and they can be so sweet.  I feel like I'm really seeing them for the first time in a little while.

A few of my favorite quotes from the last couple days:

Luke said, "Excuse me." I said, "What, Buddy?" He replied, "Mom, I already told you.  When I say 'Mom, excuse me' it means I want to talk to you.  When I just say, 'Excuse me,' it means I'm saying excuse me because I burped."

In the Lion King, I think Scar calls the hyenas idiots.  Luke jokingly said the same quote to Anna.  Anna replied, "Luke, you went too far."

Ally has been thinking so much about time lately.  She always wants to know "How many days..." until something.  Yesterday she asked, "How many days until Finley gets dead?"  We told her a long, long time.

Luke has been pretty grumpy today.  I'm not sure what got into him (maybe it's because with his picky eating, he's ended up eating mostly pancakes and chips for three days), but at one point he solved the problem, "Mommy, I'm sick of being a twin with Ally.  Kate and Ally both have red hair, so 'em can be twins."  I started to read too much into this little revelation until I realized that the way he was treating me, he was probably going to find me a new son next.

This morning he was sweet though.  I asked Lukey if he'd still camp with me when he was older.  I was feeling sentimental about him not wanting to camp as a teenager.  He told me he'd camp with me until he is 55.  I'm not sure that I'll feel up to sleeping on the ground when I'm 85, but I'd love to think I will.

Anna reported her mosquito bite count to me today, Anna's mosquito count to me, which I later verified to be accurate, "I have nine on my arms and I have 37 on my legs, including my knees."  Kate said, "Anna, that's weird.  Your knees are just part of your legs."

In the car, Anna was putting hydrocortisone on her bug bites when I heard Kate say, "Anna, you're putting that on like it's sunscreen."  Anna replied, "Yep, I know I am."

And Ally orchestrated a whole game time from a game she'd remembered playing in K4.  With Luke's help, she had everyone write names of their "friends" on pieces of paper, then we balled them all up, and threw them.  Then we'd pick one, read it, and say, "Hi Ally" or "Hi Bubba."  She was quite the little teacher.

And how old are you?

I took the kids to sign up for the summer reading program.  When it's not too busy, I like to use these kinds of opportunities to let the kids practice speaking for themselves.  (The same reason I have the kids order their own food in restaurants when servers aren't too busy.)

I told Luke he could go first, before he had a chance to get nervous and because he needed the practice the most.  

The children's librarian Beth is wonderful.  She asked Luke all the questions, patiently waited for him to answer, and he did great.  I could see he was nervous, but he worked through it. 

Ally went next.  Beth knows all the kids, so she didn't really have any questions for Ally since she knew all her answers would be the same as Luke's.  But, she didn't want to deny Ally the experience, so she asked, "How do you spell your name?"  Ally tried to spell Alison, but got a little tripped up.  

Then Beth asked, "And, how old are you?" 

Ally said, "Uh, four and a half, too."  She had this look like she just had to say more.  She continued, "We're twins, so..."  Then she held her hands, both palms up, in a "you can draw the conclusion" sort of way. 

I started laughing.  I couldn't stop for a moment, and I repeated, "We're twins, so...." Beth started laughing a bit, too.  She said, "I was just trying to give her the full experience!" 

Oh, Anna...

I just told a friend how lucky I was that my kids were all potty trained day and night by the time they were three.  This is, of course, why Anna has wet the bed twice in the last week.  In the last four years, she's probably only wet once, maybe twice, before.

Apparently she's dreaming that she's going to the bathroom, but she's really still sleeping.  It began happening the same time she switched to the top bunk.  Maybe she's even unconsciously lazy, so her body says, Hey, getting out of bed is a lot of work.  There's that ladder and everything...  Let's dream you do it instead.

The thing that cracked me up is that Kate told me that when Anna woke up she said to her, "Kate, just a suggestion. If you go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, be sure you're not asleep."

They've got each other's backs

The kids were getting ready for school.  Luke was acting pretty crabby.

Ally said, "Lukey, you're being gwumpy."

I added, "Honey, you really are being grumpy."

Ally turned to me and said, "Don't call my brofer gwumpy!"

Later, I gave Luke some candy to give to the bus driver for the end of the year. Ally had given hers the day before.  Ally said she wanted to give it to the bus driver and began to get upset.  

Luke handed the candy to Ally and said, "You can give it to him Ally.  I didn't want to, anyway."