Swinging Into Summer

James is two weeks into his summer, and already he's been on a road trip of 1,100 miles, gotten a stomach bug, and finished his first week of summer school. He's been showing the stress, but holding it together so well. I am proud of him.

I could tell that he was getting anxious over the end of Kindergarten. There was bedwetting almost very night (after staying dry for about 2 months) and it was harder to keep him on-task. He really started testing by trying to wander away. During this time I was filling out a behaviour form that a consultant needed and realized that a lot of the acting up (e.g., getting into things and breaking them, making messes, etc.) on James' part was a result of his being bored. The toys that used to focus or interest him just weren't cutting it. Still searching for the Next Things ...

The day after the last day of school, I started cleaning our van and packing for our week-long trip to parts down south. James might have been a little excited/anxious about that. Hard to tell. He did ask a few questions and I tried to plot our trip for him on the calendar, because his class has been studying the days of the week. I packed lots of changes for my laundry-creating guy. I brought some books and a pad of paper/box of crayons. I figured we'd be on the go most of the time and we were.

At 5:30 am I put the kids in the loaded van and off we drove. I figured they'd nap for a bit, but nope -- I had chirpy kiddos with me on the road. They were very good travelers through the rain, detours, burst of hot sun, and more rain. We visited family, with lunch at Grandma & Grandpa's and afternoon/dinner with cousins. In between, we visited a mall and played with the stairs and fountain.

We finally rolled into the motel parking lot at 10:30pm, just as James announced "Mommy, I gon' be sick." Whoosh! Opened the doors to let in the fresh air (and a little rain). Calamity avoided.

Rested the next day, and discovered the pretty motel pool was not heated -- yikes! Still, it was fun splashing for half an hour. The afternoon was spent at the beach, followed by pizza dinner with two of our favourite aunties. The two exciting days at Disneyland ... the beginning of constipation central. I continued to spike his milks with Miralax.

Then we took a slow drive up to visit with friends near San Luis Obispo. Luckily we had a wonderful place to stay, because James finally passed the BMs but then lay on the sofa the rest of our stay. Gas, six-year molars pushing through, *and* gastroenteritis. My poor guy! He was a trooper, playing with the stairs and chatting a bit with our friends. I was so happy that I'd learned my lesson from a previous trip and packed the essential OTC meds from home so I could start getting him what he needed ASAP. I felt guilty about him getting sick, but each time we go on the road, the problems change and seem to get less drastic. And he loves going on the trips.

I kept him home a couple of days and then off to summer school. Wow. Some familiar faces with students and teacher, but no one where James was used to seeing them. Also, the school was at a new campus for James, and it is LOUD. I can tell it's stressful for him because he clings a bit at morning drop-off and cried when he saw me again the first two days at pick-up. More on the school later. More learning and growing for us.