Red Screen Door: Just Sawyer

We shipped Jack off to summer day camp and that left me with a week of just Sawyer. Brent was looking around our bedroom the other day and noticed that we have a lot of our firstborn's memorabilia on display, but nothing really from little brother. And when I sat down and thought about it, I realized that this week of summer camp was Sawyer's only chance in his short lifetime to be the only kid.

And so I took him out for sushi.

And not just any sushi. Conveyer belt sushi!

He liked the fish eggs in particular and I speak from experience when I tell you that it is impossible to keep those tiny little eggs from adhering to all touchable surfaces within a three-year-old's reach. And no matter how many napkins you use and even if you carry your egg-faced child into the bathroom for a quick scrubdown after the meal, you will still be finding fish eggs stuck to his or her body for days to come. Ick.

Sawyer is what you might call a "spirited" child. You might also say that he's rather "busy." But if we cut through all of that euphemism crap and get real, I think you'll see that Sawyer is really just his own person with his own, often very strange, agenda.

Middle children of the world, do not be offended when I tell you that he is a classic middle child.

Hanging out solo with my little guy for a week was a lot of fun- we went to the thrift stores with my friend Doris (who is a professional thrift store shopper) and played with grimy toys and brawled with equally grimy unattended children. We had a breakfast date where Sawyer entertained/horrified us by dipping his bacon into whipped butter. Sawyer wore Jack's shoes, rode in his carseat, and played with his toys. I figured he'd be livin' it up as the big man around the house, but each day as three o'clock approached, he would begin to mope around.

"What's wrong, buddy?" I would ask.
"I miss Jack. I'm ready to go pick him up now," he would reply.

I am pretty sure Jack has never missed Sawyer. Ever.

So, about this summer camp- it was through Jack's kindergarten and it was Le Monde Enchante de Merlin so it was all about knights and castles and swords and whatnot. I could have been an active parent and pitched in some volunteer hours so I would know more about what they did, but I decided not to set the bar too high for myself in terms of elementary school involvement. The camp was 9-3 every day with a field trip to the beach for sandcastle building on Friday. As I was packing up his gear for the first day, I started to get a bit nervous about sending him off for so much camp. We had never done anything like this before and I just wasn't sure how it would all go down. Would he be cool with me just dropping him off?

Turns out he was. And I am so glad we did this because now I feel like we are ready for kindergarten. Never in a million years did I think I would be that sentimental sappy mom who gets all teared up on the first day of kindergarten, but as the Big Day approaches and these pregnancy hormones keep rising, I have to admit that I was kind of freaking out about it all. So thanks, Jack, for helping me be as cool as you are about this whole kindergarten thing.

(How does he have the patience for this?)

So anyway, I've been trying a bit harder to acknowledge Sawyer for his.. uh.. uniqueness and... uh... his contributions to our family. He is really good at husking corn.