Drum roll, please. Today (today... today...) for the first time ever (ever... ever...), WINK and SMILE got on a school bus without me. I know, I know. It's summer and they were going to camp, not school, but I don't know what else to call it. But they marched on like little pros, like they've been doing it all their short lives, without one glance behind them.
My boys are off to day camp. It's a camp for spectrum kids, so the main focus is on building social skills, but it's run like an ordinary camp, complete with swim time, games, etc. I'm a nervous wreck, of course, but they don't know that. And there are two things that are keeping all of my anxiety at bay: Sponge Bob and Mr. Rob.
SMILE tantrumed for over a week about going to camp. Any time I tried to talk to him about it, he refused to engage in the conversation. It just wasn't going to happen in his mind. I placed a phone call to the director of the program and found out that, through some divine intervention, SMILE was going to be placed in the Sponge Bob theme room at camp. "Does he happen to like Sponge Bob?" the director asked. "He would trade me for Sponge Bob," was my reply. At my request, we took a tour last week and, just as I had hoped, all of SMILE's anxieties were forgotten as soon as he saw the cast of familiar characters taped to the walls and the many jellyfish hanging from the ceiling. Whew!
WINK, however, has been excited for the past two weeks about going to camp. I mean arm flapping, jumping up and down, can't stop smiling excited. Why? Because his group leader is Mr. Rob.
Let me backtrack for a moment: Several months ago, I called the director of this camp program, which is affiliated with the agency that provides WINK and SMILE's behavioral services, and asked if Rob was going to lead the Aspergers group at camp. She said he probably would because he always had in the past. I pleaded with her to give me some assurance that WINK would be in his group. I explained that Rob already knew WINK because he has been WINK's social skills teacher for the past year at a different agency (Rob works in two agencies). I waxed poetic about the progress WINK has made and how Rob is a truly gifted therapist who is doing what he so clearly is meant to do in life. And I meant it. I {heart} Mr. Rob. I told WINK and SMILE's TSS about the conversation later that day and she went into laughing convulsions at my dining room table. "You do know," she gasped between guffaws, "that the camp director is Rob's wife, right?"
Ummm...no. I did not know that. But I don't care. I am sure that she is used to her husband's spectrum mom groupies. He's fabulous at what he does and I'm thrilled that WINK has a spot in Mr. Rob's group. I truly have no worries and that's a very rare thing.
So, it's 2:00 and my boys are one hour away from finishing their first day of summer camp. I can't wait until they get home. I've missed them something awful but I can't wait to hear every detail.
