mamajoan

I love this Ruthie-ism from last night: "Straws are like a plug. It plugs into your cup and plugs into your mouth. And whatever drink is going through it, is the electricity!"
And from a week or two ago: "A bus is like an ice-cream truck. It looks for people waiting."

Ruthie seems to have a knack for noticing similarities/correspondences/similes, such as the above quotes illustrate. In fact I think the first inkling I had that she was starting to figure out "the reading thing," quite a few months ago, was when she observed out of the blue one day that the words "green" and "gray" begin with the same sound.

So I guess Ruthie is well on her way toward becoming the stereotypical scatterbrained scientist type. You know, the kind with the lab coat and wild hair who can expound at length on the flaws in the theory of relativity, but can't ever find her car keys.

The kids started summer camp this week. They're going to day camp, actually three different camps this summer: this week they're going to the camp run by the same organization that runs Isaac's afterschool and Ruthie's preschool. (I should say former afterschool and former preschool, because neither of them will be going to those in the fall....) Isaac went to this camp last year, and Ruthie is SUPER excited to be going this year. Each morning they get bused to the camp location, cabins in the woods on a lake, and each afternoon they get bused back.

The first two days went quite well in terms of the kids' experiences -- dropoff was a breeze, both of them had numerous other kids they knew there (including my nephew Baz, who is in Ruthie's age-group), they both had a great time both days and came home bursting with things to tell me. Last night Ruthie was still talking away about this and that when I was trying to put her to bed. LOL.

But what Ruthie did NOT come home with, either day, was her bathing suit. And on the second day, she didn't come home with her towel, backpack, lunchbox, or spare clothes either. *FACEPALM*

I packed a plastic bag on Tuesday, for her to put her wet bathing suit in. Apparently she did so, but then left the bag and suit in her cabin at camp. I was sure that someone would see the plastic bag and assume it was trash and throw it away. Wednesday, I had to pack her too-small bathing suit because it was the only one I had left (have ordered another online, but it hasn't arrived yet). I spoke to a counselor who promised to help her look for the first bathing suit.

Wednesday evening, I find out that Ruthie left her backpack on the bus, containing all of her stuff except, mysteriously enough, her water bottle. She claimed that the first bathing suit had not been found, but then this morning I learned from another counselor that it WAS found and was put in, of course, the backpack. So both bathing suits (still wet) and her towel (ditto) and all her other stuff, all on the bus. The counselor assured me that she will get it all back today since they use the same buses every day. We'll see.

I spoke to the counselors about helping Ruthie remember her stuff. And I'm trying to take deep breaths and remind myself that this is the first time she has really been responsible for her stuff in this way. And she's only 5 and some amount of losing stuff is to be expected. But also, ARGH!

Ah well. At least they're having fun at camp. *Sigh*