A weekend away

I spent my first and second nights away from my baby this weekend. I remember when Alison left her babies for the first time (it was for my bachelorette party in Chicago, actually) and at the time I thought, what's the big deal, they have a father AND grandparents to look after them, they're in capable hands.  I didn't appreciate back then that the hard part is not for the baby but for the mommy. I knew this was coming since we set the date during the summer; I had a field trip with the 7th graders I work with. But that didn't make it any easier. (It did allow me to stockpile a lot of milk, which was good, because Jack caught a cold while I was gone, and apparently all he wanted to do was drink milk.)

It was a learning experience, though, probably for everyone involved, but especially for me. The trip happened to be mostly boys, and I've never spent that much time with 13-year-old boys before. It was interesting to see what's in store for me as a mother of a boy. I have to say, I'm pretty excited. Boys are fun. Boys are easily excited and wiling to try just about anything. Girls at this age are kind of boring. I remember those insecurities that keep you from ever putting yourself out there, that cause you to latch on to the other girls in the group and hang back and watch rather than participate, that keep you whispering to your friends when teachers are desperately trying to keep your attention, because whatever the friend has to say is more important, even though it probably won't matter tomorrow, and definitely won't matter past that. Right now I am looking forward to not having to deal with that stage with Jack.

We took the kids to the Carmel River, to Hastings Reserve up in the hills in Carmel Valley, and then to the tidepools in Monterey. We made a big poster of the three different ecosystems and had the kids draw the different living things they found at each of them. We taught them the big word "biodiversity" and I think they actually got it. Their favorite parts were not necessarily the biodiversity parts, of course. They raved about the hike we took up the big hill (I think they might never have been hiking before) and loved the night hike so much they begged to do another the second night (they definitely had never seen stars like that before). However, one of the girls wrote down "hunting" for one of her favorite things when we asked them to reflect back on the weekend, and I asked her, "What do you mean, hunting? Hunting for what?" And she looked at me with a look that said "duh!" and replied, "Bugs!" So I count that as a major achievement, because at the beginning of the weekend the girls shrieked anytime something with more than four legs came near them.

Most of the photos of the kids are on the field camera, which is at school right now, but here's some of the scenery I snagged with my phone:





And these were my two favorite boys. I couldn't resist snapping this one, because they were taunting the waves, which were huge, and had already splashed them a few times, but they were so exhilarated to be so close to the ocean.



I think this image captures what I will take away from the weekend, and from this fellowship in general. The kid on the right would not write anything down even if you put the paper and pencil right in front of him and hovered over him and prompted him with everything he should say. He simply does not have the focus. But he was so excited to be out there, and he learned so quickly when he was experiencing it for himself. There has to be a better way to reach kids like that. Field trips are great, but too few and far between, so our school systems are failing kids like Ricky. It's not that he's not smart. He's almost too smart to sit still.

Meanwhile, while I was ruminating on that, Jack was having a grand old time with his dad and his grandma and grandpa, who had come down to visit for the weekend. Unbelievably, I had cell reception way out there in the hills, so Danny sent me pictures of Jack that I could open throughout the weekend to see what he was up to. That simultaneously made it so much easier and also so much harder to be away. It was a huge relief to see his smiling face and know he was having so much fun, but it was heartbreaking to feel so far away from him.

This was my favorite one, which Danny had titled "Good morning from Jack!"

(that pretty much made my morning.)

Danny sent me about a dozen of these, bless his heart. Here are some of the highlights:

"Jack's grandma made play-doh for him!"

Jack likes xylophones!

"Dinnertime for Jack!"

"Jack is clean!"

"Sleepy Jack :)"