I don’t know if it is perception, reality, or my mind just adapting to it, but somewhere along the way, my little guy changed, dramatically, and recently.

Thane was a preemie and almost a very early preemie (30 weeks). For 6 weeks prior to his birth and well over a year after, I stressed over his development. Would he be normal? What challenges would he face? Is he hitting such and such milestone before or on time, or, heaven-forbid…late?? Jay and I privately used to joke…”It’s a good thing he is a good-looking kid.”

Thane was never slow, by any means. When we recalculated for his “adjusted age” he always hit things on target, sometimes even early. Being first time parents, and the people we are, we put (and continue to put) a lot of pressure and expectation on him and that came out with always (ok, me) looking for something funny (Jay would say I was “Greeking”).

That is absolutely not the case now. Sure, Thane is still an initial observer. He watches until he gets comfortable. With older kids, he lets them take the lead. But then he comes out of his shell and keeps up with the lot of them. He plays soccer and hockey in organized teams. Focus is often an issue but he does great with the activities. He is also not a shy kid. We may have the occasional instance of clinging behind us but those are the rare times. He talks to people, coaches, teachers, waiters/waitresses.

Recently, though, he turned from being a toddler to being a year old boy. He has intelligent streams of thought. He seems more focused (except for a soccer practice the morning of his birthday party but who can blame him) and more attentive. He does more and more without even being asked.

We had soccer camp in the morning yesterday and then I picked him up for his 4 year doctor visit. On the car ride over he asked me where we were going. I told him. He let out an enthusiastic “Yay! I love my doctor!”

The nurse weighed and measured him and gave him the cool picture eye sight test, which he aced.

Weight: 39.5 lbs (75th percentile)
Height: 41 3/4″ (80th percentile) (Last year comparison is here)

In the office, he played with the toys. I let him know when the doctor came in, he needed to stop playing. A few minutes later the doctor walked in and Thane stopped what he was doing and sat in the chair calmly. Dr. Tad told him he could go back to playing and his mom and he would talk. To which, Thane responded, don’t forget to tell him about my stitches.

Gee, thanks kid. I was going to highlight my awesome mom traits before telling him I let you run into a shelf corner.

Dr. Tad looked at me with an arched eyebrow…”Stitches?”

I proceeded to tell him the story. Apparently I got it wrong because Thane corrected me and told him the story instead.

Then he told Dr. Tad about his party favors, which were rockets. Then about rockets in general, and boosters, and booster engines that fall of the rocket to Earth. That’s a long way. He then taught him how to count to 20 in Greek.

We talked with Dr. Tad for about an hour (have I mentioned how much I love this man???) about how Thane is doing, school goals, Greek, etc. This invisible brother (also named Thane and also 4) is no issue, unless we start feeding him food. I informed Dr. Tad that Thane did not actually talk to invisible brother Thane, that he just served the purpose of evil twin, who does everything Thane should not. Apparently, that is healthy and fine. Grrreat.

In the end, Dr. Tad thought Thane was doing awesome (his words, not mine) and that we were “Doing a fantastic job raising him.” (again, his words, not mine). WOO-HOO! He said he was very impressed with his ability to talk to an adult normally and make consistent eye contact throughout. He loved that he was so involved with sports and thought it was great for him physically and mentally. He also predicted Thane would be about 6′ tall. Damn my short genes counter-balancing Jay’s tall ones.

Then came the subject of the dreaded MMR. We have postponed that forever (see earlier comments). Forever just ended. We opted to get it with this visit. Four years finally seemed like he had built up a strong enough immune system, his communication and personality were strong and developed. Also, the MMR shot they had was a no-preservative, Thiomersal free injection. We were out of excuses.

So at 4 years old, Thane is finally MMR vaccinated. Thus far, I have seen no crazy reactions since. Regardless, I think we made the right decision waiting (for us) even if all it accomplished was to make mom more comfortable with it.

Oh, Dr. Tad also looked at his scar and recommended we apply some Vaseline to it to keep it moist but overall it seems to be healing well.

After that it was back to school. We came in right after nap but before ice cream. My big guy was a very happy camper.

When I was a kid, from before I can even remember, I spent my summers in Canada.

Once school was out, mid-June-ish through Labor Day, my grandparents would take me up. Giagia and I would stay all summer long, while parents and Pappou visited on weekends. It was a wonderful time and one of the primary reasons I joke that I remained “sane” despite my upbringing, the divorce, and living in Manhattan.

Canada was a refuge, an escape from the concrete jungle into a beautiful “countryside” (even though the house was in the middle of downtown Ottawa. I had friends nearby, family all around–aunts, uncles, cousins, a house, a backyard. I took tennis lessons, learned to be a lifeguard, and rode my bike.

Ottawa was my summer camp.

Fast forward 30 years.

We live in a house, we have a backyard, we have friends all around us. Summers are a different thing for my kids than they were for me.

At the ripe old age of four, Thane is probably enrolled in more activities than I did throughout my teenage years. Yesterday was his first day of “camp.” Oh, yeah, and mine too.

Thane started Soccer Camp yesterday. A 5 day soccer program, half a day, at a nearby university. It is the first time he is “away” from us and not specifically under the watchful eye of us or a teacher. I had a fitful sleep Sunday night.

I woke up Monday morning expecting a struggle. While Thane is quite the athlete, he is also reserved and watchful. He also is reticent to change sometimes. This was going to be quite the change.

Much to my surprise, when we got up and I pulled out all of his soccer gear, he looked at me wide eyed and asked, “Where are we going, Mama?” to which I replied…”Soccer Camp!” he let out an equally exuberant, “YAY!”

We talked about what the day would be like and how he was going to hockey camp right after (Oh, did I forget to mention the double header for that day???). He was still excited and very happy with his new cleats and shin guards (the old ones were much too small).

We arrived at the Soccer Camp on time and, thankfully, prepared. I had bag, ball, water bottle, money for snacks and health form all ready. Thane ran to the table and gathered his new camp T-Shirt and official soccer ball. He grabbed both and we headed to the stairs.

The field itself was impressive, a true, well manicured, college soccer field. The stairs to the field were equally impressive but Thane managed down them with ease.

We arrived at the field, put his bag away and he was ready to start kicking the ball. One of the coaches immediately came his way and welcomed him in. He then started playing with a slightly older kid as well. Thane was all smiles.

I watched for a few minutes before saying my goodbyes–I got a quick hug and a kiss and wave off. Wow. Thane is not clingy, but I was not expecting such a quick send off!

A few hours later he went to hockey, which somehow (long story) morphed into a pool party instead. He was the hit of the party and had a blast himself. Then back to hockey where we met up with him and Mara took her lessons.

When I asked him how soccer went….”GREAT!”
When I asked if he wanted to go back tomorrow….”Can I stay all day, please?”

A key to success a parent once told me is if they ask to go back, it is a win.

I did hear that after today’s half day he was exhausted (it was over 96 degrees outside) and ate a quick lunch and was knocked out shortly after. I think it is a good thing to stick with the half day for now.

Here is a bad pic of him this morning, but you can see how happy he was, big smiles, to be at camp.

Oh, also on the agenda for this summer….

Another Session of Soccer Camp
2 Daytime Hockey Camps
1 Night Preds Hockey Camp
and, this just added today
1 Daytime Tennis Camp

We woke up to Mr. Grumpy Pants, Jr this morning. Somewhere along the way I married Mr. Suzy Sunshine who does not tolerate morning grumpiness. I had morning grumpiness down to a science at a very early age, so my patience level for Thane not wanting to talk in the morning is much higher than that of Jay. Jay woke Thane up this morning playing “Good Morning, Starshine” on his iPhone. I told him it sounded like something from the Lost soundtrack.

After struggling with shirt choices for some time (although not as bad as Rachel’s 45 minute shorts conversation) we got him and Mara (who had two different socks on her feet and one on her hand) and somehow made it to school before breakfast was over.

I made it to work in one piece so decided to splurge on some Starbucks, which is literally right across from my office.

I got an Iced Mocha Coconut (Coffee, not Frappucino, so it was nice and sloshy). The drink looks like melted dark chocolate with some ice swirling around, aka, my version of heaven.

I get in the car, blast some of my new Katy Perry E.T. on the radio (don’t judge me) and drive away. I am feeling pretty good in my cute new Ann Taylor Loft outfit: lightweight navy sweater, blank tank top, and cute “barely-pink, they are almost white,” capris. It is not going to be such a bad day after all.

I drive off. I take a turn. The Mocha does not. It goes flying. And, where does it fall? The floor? The console? The front of my leg?

No. No. No.

I imagine the drink jumped up and into my chair and fell directly on my ass.

My brand new, cute, barely-pink capris look like I crapped on myself. (Pardon the language but this exactly what I thought, and really, there is no nicer way to say that.)

There is nothing in the back of the car except a pair of Jay’s old jeans. I am 2 minutes from work but almost a 40 minute return drive if I decide to go home. Plus, I have a conference call soon.

I risk it. I walk into my job of 1 month and 1 day, sweater pulled down in back as far as it will bear, turn on my computer and run to the bathroom. I run into one person on the way there. We have a nice hallway conversation and I do a backwards walk as she and I pass, continuing to talk to each other.

In the bathroom, the damage is not so bad and my sweater covers all of it. I am also able to get most of it out with a few exceptions, which will hopefully come out in the wash. I do make the mistake of dousing the whole thing with water, which proceeds to drip down the pant legs, but the wet look is a hundred times better than the poop look. I went back to my desk with the least populated route possible.

If you need me, I will be here, in my office, behind my desk, sipping my Iced Mocha.