My (not so baby) boy is home! Ah...can you hear that exhale coming straight from this mama's heart? For as much as we love and encourage all these wonderful adventures of theirs out on their own in the world, there is a slight holding of breath that happens, at least in these (early, still) years. For a few weeks sleep was disjointed, movements strange, table setting even stranger as I was reminded that 'someone was missing'. It was, of course, balanced by smiles thinking about what he was up to, and by the arrival of those letters every few days reminding me of just how special this time away is for him. Each letter bore a remarkable resemblance to the last with a sprinkling of the word "AWESOME," followed by enough exclamation points to properly fill the page. Yes. Camp was good.
(A pillow - filled with sawdust - that Adelaide made and left on his bed the day Calvin left for camp.)
While he was away, I got to work on a little surprise project for him in the form of a little bedroom redo. Yes, yes, we haven't even been here quite two years. But his room, I must confess, was the one that got rather slapped together in a rush at the end when we were up against the calendar to move in. The original paint color he chose wasn't available at the time, and his floor never got a second coat, and oh...it was a rush job. A rush job that I noticed often, and that Calvin - who keeps the cleanest room in the house - surely noticed too. So these past weeks, it all got a proper clean - out, the paint he original chose (Yolo Water 07) on the walls, fresh paint on the floors, and other little things like newly painted drawer knobs and framed pictures of some of his recent dance performances.
I (and he) have been puzzling for a while now over a solution to all the posters on his walls. Particularly all the 8x10 magazine covers and pull outs that go in and out and on and off the walls seemingly so often (depending on their performance in a given game? I never can tell). The holes they leave in the plaster are messy, at best. I headed to Twitter for a solution and was grateful for all the great ideas that poured in - putty! cork! magnetic paint! And then a few folks directed me to this idea of an art board, found in a little book called The Creative Family. Oh, right! That! It was just right for this little corner, and that little holes-in-the-plaster problem.
He was so excited about his new room, but we were, of course, more excited to see him. The older amongst us try to restrain ourselves at least a bit to, you know, allow him to sleep and all. But the littlest ones among us show it most truly - they haven't left his side.
Soon he heads off to his next summer adventure (I know! To be eleven!), but for right this very minute we are all soaking up being our full seven. Together at home.
