Star camper

Early this year I put all three boys on a wait list at a local daycare center. In six months, they managed to move backward on the list. I knew that Zander and Ben would be fine spending another summer with my aunt. I knew it would end in disaster for Nick. He’s older than everyone there, and he doesn’t play with toys so he has a hard time connecting with any of the kids there. On the last day of school Mike talked to the mother of one of Zander’s classmates. I don’t know how it came up, but she mentioned a camp-like program through the local rec center. I called on my way home from work and took Nick down to sign up before dinner. They only had one opening in two of the weeks offered, but we took it. A couple days later they called back (twice) offering Nick spots in five more weeks. Again, we took it. It’s only been a few days, but I can already tell this was a great decision. This week they went to the pool twice and the UNI rec center once. Even better, it’s CHEAP (well, in terms of daycare). And Nick loves it. Last summer we had to beg him to go to daycare, even on days when they were doing fun things, like the pool. He gets up super excited and ready to go every day.

Then today, he came home with this (pardon the picture – he actually came home with this yesterday, but I forgot to take a picture. That’s his still puffy, just rolled out of bed, mom get the camera out of my face face). I[m thinking we’ve found a solution to our summer care problem for the next couple of years. Hopefully if Zander goes next year it won’t ruin it for Nick.

And of course these hams can’t pass up getting their picture taken either.