Got my boy back on Saturday. Summer is always a weird time for us. Grayson spends time in El Paso with one set of grandparents; in Ruidoso, NM with another set; and in Norman, OK with a third set. He also spends a week in Scout Camp. The rest of the time is divvied up between his dad's house and our house, most of it going to his dad. When it all shakes down I get him for a total of four weeks.
I'm glad his dad wants to spend long chunks of time with our son in the summer, and I'm glad Grayson enjoys going there. I'm sure it's fun for him to spend a couple of weeks at a stretch with his baby brother. I'm also glad that his grandparents arrange to spend time with him, and that he enjoys that time. But it's hard to lose him for so much of the summer. There are so many things I want to do with him here that we just don't have time to do in the short time we have together. If I could just take those weeks off work, we could do all kinds of things, but of course, that's not an option.
It's okay, I'm not complaining. It gets a little easier each time we do it. But when he's home, I'm really ready for him to be home, and I want to cram as much good stuff into that time as I possibly can, while still allowing him his necessary teenaged-boy-sitting-in-front-of-the-computer time... which equals basically all the hours I"m at work. I come home at work and watch and make lunch and small talk. I'm happy just sitting on the sofa watching him be there.
This weekend we spent Saturday doing nothing at all. He had been at Scout Camp for a week, living rough in tents without air conditioning, so he was reveling in the A.C. and electronic devices. Yesterday, we spent all day at the new water park. I think I have a water park hangover, in fact. My eyes still feel scorched from the sun, and I'm a bit pink around the forehead. But I'm grateful for the time we spend together, and the fact that he wants me to be with him. I know the time is coming when he'll be off with his friends and won't want his old mom to join in.
John has made some new friends that came along, as well: two twenty-somethings who work in the restaurant biz in town. Grayson thinks they're about the coolest things on legs. It's fun to watch him light up and join in the conversation when they're around. I'm sure it's good for him to have the chance to hang out with cool dudes, instead of just with us old farts who doze off on the sofa at 9:30. They all seem like kids to me, I admit it. I find myself wanting to mother these "boys:" reminding them to put on sunscreen and ordering pizza to feed everyone. I realize they're 15 years old than Grayson, but to me they just look like big, hungry boys, and my instinct is to feed them. They don't seem to mind.
I wonder what G will be like at that age?
I'm working, of course, for the rest of the week, so we'll have to slip in our fun times together in the evenings as best we can. Last night we went out at 9:30 and walked around the block under the big orange "Super Moon," looking for toads under the streetlights. A favorite activity of ours. John came along, sort of padding along behind us wondering why on earth he was doing this when he could be sitting on the sofa in the air conditioning. We only found one full-grown toad, but it was good-sized and easy to catch... peed on us both liberally and was then released. Lots of teeny juvenile toads, though, hopping around the damp concrete walkway at our front door, snacking on bugs.
Think we'll get headlamps and go to the Crystal Bridges Trail later this week: it's illuminated AND close to the stream, so we may get better toad sightings there, and maybe even a salamander if we go down by the water. We'll take a camera when we go.
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