Man, for a woman of leisure...

...I sure don't get around to blogging very often! :(

Chase is back from his big trip to see his grandparents and to Space Camp. It was his first experience at "sleepaway" camp, and I have to deem it a big success. It was an odd feeling for me, though. My parents took him to camp, which was about 6 hours away from where they live (and they live 2000 miles from me). So, for the first time, really ever, he was sleeping away from home and he was not in the care of people who love him. I couldn't shake the feeling that that was odd.

Now, I know the current trend is that kids just don't spend the night at people's houses anymore. At least here in Vegas, it seems more the norm that a 10-yr-old kid has never had a sleepover. Chase has been sleeping over at friends' houses since he was 2. (I have good friends here who honestly question my parenting decisions when they hear that.) My good friend Kale and I had a babysitting co-op, and it quickly became obvious that it was just plain disruptive to everyone to pick the kid up at midnight. It made more sense to just let him spend the night and pick him up in the morning. So, Chase is one of the rare kiddos who absolutely NEVER has called in the middle of the night asking me to pick him up. He loves nothing better than a sleepover, and has never, to my knowledge, been homesick in any way. Which is good...except it does kinda beg the question - does he miss me at all when he's away?

Frankly, history has taught me that no, he does not.

Doesn't make the mama's heart happy.

BUT, sportsfans, we had a little development at Space Camp. HE MISSED US!!! :) He had the opportunity to call every night, and he never ever missed a call. He had a wonderful time with his grandparents (didn't miss us a bit, per usual), and loved Space Camp to pieces, but after 7 days away, he confessed to missing his dad and me. And not even "just a little" but he said he got pretty homesick the first day or so of camp. Awwwwwww (sniff). Does a mama's heart good.

But, he did not call and cry or beg me to come get him - even though he was homesick, he still participated, made new friends, told us great stories of his adventures on the phone every night and generally enjoyed himself very much. He didn't even admit to being homesick until he...WAS HOME!

So, the moral of this story is...it's wonderful to have a confident, independent child who can manage to happily exist outside of his mama's loving embrace.

Except when it's not.

If you're a mama, you understood that sentence completely. :)