Second Week of Summer 2015

Our second week of summer brought a new camp, an illness and time with a much missed friend.

Sunday, Nanny S came over to babysit while I attended an alumni event for my university!  It was lovely to see my 'big sister' and my pi pal :).  Listening to Dr. Purdy reminded me of my college days...loved him and everything about that place!

Nanny S took Tate and her niece to a local splash pad, and from the pictures it appears everyone had a fantastic time!!

Monday morning it what time for Tate's Creative Writing Camp.  It's half day, absolutely not conducive to working families or those without a nanny/babysitter for their kids.  But it was important to me that Tate have lots of unstructured time during the week if possible, so I'm sucking it up this summer (and probably for the next couple) so he can have some downtime at home in many afternoons.  Since camp starts after I have to be at work, I'm dropping him at my friend's house, and she takes him and her daughter.  I LOVE my village!

Tuesday I had a dental appointment, so I go to take Tate to camp!!  He was thrilled...I walked him all the way into the classroom and got to meet his teachers.  He was right at home!!!

Wednesday was the awful 'everything happened at once' day.  Tate vomited while his playdate was over, the pest control guy and contractor arrived at the same time as he got sick, and 2 minutes later said playdate announced he was afraid of cats!  Nanny S handled all with aplomb and by the time I got home with Pedialyte and Gatorade Tate was hanging in there.  Exhausted, headachy and still feeling poorly in his stomach, but hanging in there.  (he threw up all over me about 30 minutes after I got home :( )  By 7pm he was asking to go to bed and was out within seconds.

Thursday he happily stayed home with Nanny S all day.  I gave him the Cars 2 DVD much to his delight as I'd been holding on to it to give it to him at a special time.  This seemed as good as any.  I also had Nanny S dole out a couple of Cars diecast cars as well over the course of the day.  He was a very happy little boy.

I did have a good scare though.  I called to check on them around 1220, actually I texted Nanny S.  No response back, so I called.  Three times...the phone went straight to an automated message which said 'The number you have dialed is no longer a working number.'  So I called my home number...no answer three times.  I texted and called her cell again.  No answer.  I started to get worried.  Had something happened to them?  Did she have to take him to the hospital?  Where was she with my child?  We have had a rash of crime in my neighborhood, and everyone is on high alert.  We have extra patrols and people are arming themselves against intruders left and right.

In any event, I decided to come home and check.  Imagine my horror when I pulled onto my street and there were absolutely no cars on the street.  Not one.  Her car was nowhere to be seen.  Where were they?  Now we had talked about them going to get popsicles at some point during the day, and her phone had been having trouble getting my texts the day before...well actually she received my texts, but her texts would not come through either at all or they were delayed.  But I had been able to call with no problem and vice versa.  All I could think was that someone had disabled her phone and something had happened to them.

 Her computer was here in my house along with all her other belongings; my house alarm had been turned on. I knew she wouldn't take Tate anywhere, but did I really?  How well do you really ever know another person?  I have no other way of contacting her, nor do I know how to reach her mother or sister if I needed to (I realize now I need to get this information from her for her own safety).  Why didn't/couldn't she answer the phone?

I was a basket case.  So I waited.  I called work and said I was going to wait.  Finally they came in after I'd been here about 15 minutes.  I almost collapsed while holding Tate, trying not to let him know how scared I'd been.  He was over the moon to see me!!  (this was when I gave him his Cars 2 movie)

Turns out she was talking to her phone carrier as they walked in to tell them her phone was not working.  They had gone to the store to get the popsicles, and I must have called the home phone right after they left.  So, all was good, and I headed back to the office and was just a tad bit tardy.

Friday morning I took Tate to camp, and he insisted that I walk him all the way in :) instead of dropping off in the carpool line.  I had a lovely massage while he was there then picked him up to come home for the weekend!!!  We had a lovely Game Night and Movie Night complete with pizza and Charlie Brown movies (he is loving Charlie Brown these days...he watches those little videos all the time!).

Saturday was the big day for Tate.  The day he'd been waiting for for weeks!!  He was going to Leo's birthday party!!  Oh my goodness has Tate missed Leo something fierce!!  All week long he asked when it was going to be Saturday, and then on Saturday he was asking when we were going, what time was the party.

I must say I was worried about how this re-connection would go.  Tate has not seen Leo since last August, yet I know he's never stopped loving his friend.  He talks about Leo pretty often and mentions their friendship all the time.  He has not found that connection with anyone else, and I don't know that he ever will.  They were together from the time they were 11 months old until they were 5 years old.  Day in and day out.  10 hours a day.  Napping together. Eating together.  Playing together. Being rocked together.  Learning together.  They did those formative years together, every.single.day. There's a strong connection there.  

Sadly, though his mother and I don't have that connection.  I like her well enough, but other than our love for our kids we don't have much in common.  We're very similar in our approach to parenting on many levels.  But she's a very traditional person, and I am too I suppose, but my family is very nontraditional.  I don't know if that unsettles her.  Actually I don't think that's it...I think we're just two very different people and if not for our kids we would not be friends.  And that's so totally ok.  

It just makes it hard for the boys.  We just didn't get to make the time for them to see each other this year.  

I happened to post on fb a picture of the boys graduating last year for 'throwback thursday'.  Leo's mom saw the picture and commented.  I mentioned that we needed to get the boys together.  I had also sent her a picture of Tate's summer bucket list in which Leo's name was on almost every single page.  She then invited Tate to Leo's birthday party.

So I wasn't sure if she invited Tate because though she knew Leo would love to have Tate there, that she might not have had him on the list until this moment. 

I decided I didn't care.  My child wanted to see his friend.  That's all that mattered to me.  I was going to make it happen. 

We loaded up the car and drove the 25 miles to their house for the party.

Those boys were in heaven.  It was like they'd never been apart.  They were inseparable the entire party.  I didn't notice Leo playing with any other kid but my kid. 

I'm so glad we went.

I love their little heads together! 

Leo let Tate help him open every single present!

I really hope to get Tate over to see Leo this summer at least one more time.  As soon as we drove away Tate asked if they could have a playdate.  I'm going to do my best to add that to our list of 'to dos' this summer.

This wonderful summer of being 5!  It's so much fun to be a little boy!