Sleepaway

Next weekend we're dropping AJ off for his first summer vacation "alone" with his grandparents. I'm having little bursts of nerves about this, not at ALL for him, but for me. A week without my sweetheart boy?? It seems impossible, and impossibly long!

Of course on one hand, I'm sad that we're one of the hundreds of families having to juggle and schedule summer camps and daycare opportunities, due to the 2-income economy and my having a full-time job even in summer. Heh. Independently Wealthy, I wish we were! On the other hand, I'm extremely excited that he's going to have a real sense of summer Vacation, capital V, and thrilled that the parents are jumping at the chance to entertain him for that time period. They're planning some outings, some backyard barbecues, some pancake breakfasts, a fishing trip and some other fun projects that I know AJ will just love. And I keep telling them that it's OKAY if he sits around playing video games a little bit, too. I want him to know that lazy, nothing to do feeling. Remember it? ...Man, that's a trip in time on the way-back machine!!

I'm also happy that he'll get time to get to know his grandparents without me and DH as a filter. (He'll be going to the other grandparents' in July, too.) They'll have to work out conversations and personality nuances one-to-one, and that's what gels a relationship.

We've timed it so we'll drive down the following weekend to "pick him up," but really we'll be meeting all of them and heading over to our condo for our Beach Week. (Let's not talk about the Gulf.) My underlying goal was that he'd be rewarded for MISSING HIS MOMMY when I show up to spend another carefree week with him, myself! Ha ha.

The only detail I desperately need to work out is: WHERE is his White Blankie? (Almost six years old, but still loves/needs the Woobie.) It has been misplaced in the last 2 days, somehow, and I'm not sure how he'll fare without it, away from home. Eeeek. Dear Saint Anthony, please look around!!