Boys at Camp

Owen has become a grabber.

This afternoon when I brought him out from his nap I had set up shop on the kitchen counter in front of a big box fan overlooking the back field behind the flats. I brought him over to where I'd stacked my books and papers, hoping to finish the last few lines I had in my chapter before I changed him and got down to play.

He immediately started grabbing for the book. I held the book further away, but this made it hard to hold him and the book, so I leaned up against the counter. He grabbed the wireless mouse to the computer and threw it down on the ground. One of the plastic covers broke off and skidded across the floor. As I reached down to grab the mouse, he grabbed a pen on the counter, and through that on the floor. So I reached down to grab the pen after I'd put the mouse back up on the counter, and on the way down he grabbed the power cord to the laptop and tried to put it in his mouth. I took the power cord away, and went to retrieve the missing plastic piece to the mouse. He knocked down two of James' hot wheels cars as I was leaning past that section of counter, and I shifted him into my other hand. When I stood up again he was holding one set of index cards in one hand and he had my phone in his mouth with the other.

There's lots to explore as an eight-month old.

Especially now that we're at camp!

We're here (mostly) for the next two weeks and my only responsibilities (mostly) are to watch the boys and practice, so that should be favorable news to those of you who like reading blogs. Our apartment (or, capartment, as James calls it) is sweltering hot, as usual, but the people are lovely and the campus is beautiful.

So far James has taken the task of teaching Owen about camp life very seriously. "Owen, this is a big rock. And it used to be purple, but now it is sparkly. And Owen, these are swings. You've never seen swings before, but I'm gonna swing on the swings with George and then we're gonna go frow rocks in the water."

There's ice cream available at every meal, and that's a nice little bargaining chip. More importantly, we don't have to do the cleanup or the preparation for any of the meals.

Today we puttered around the flats in the morning, then took a long walk over to the stream for rock-throwing. James found a huge spider under one of the rocks he picked up, and he's been very careful to examine each rock thoroughly before picking it up and throwing it ever since. Owen sat in the stroller for most of the morning and only occasionally lurched forward in an attempt to break his bonds.

Since we don't want to attempt sleeping the boys together, J and I have set up our mattresses in the middle of our big "living room." This makes for a big bounce pad, and James and Owen spent most of the hour before their naps laughing at each other jumping and falling off the mattresses.

One of these nights we'll let them stay up for singtime, but tonight they were both tuckered out from lots of exploring and in need of baths.

And it isn't even too hot here in the flats, as I sit beside a big stack of books and scratch off bits of reading I was hoping to do. Plus, it's a lot easier now that Owen isn't trying to eat my book.