Camp, Interrupted

Gabe twisted his ankle pretty badly at camp on Tuesday. It was ridiculously swollen Tuesday night, and hadn't changed much as of Wednesday morning, despite lots of icing, so sadly, he had to miss camp on Wednesday so that we could make a trip to the doctor to have it checked out.

Luckily it is just a sprain (as I figured, but I felt better knowing for sure), and with a little bit of resting, icing, compressing, and Advil, he should be good as new.

He was especially bummed about missing camp on Wednesday, though, because that was the day they were going swimming in the bay. To console him, we got lunch at McDonald's, and he got to spend a large chunk of time playing games on the iPad. I almsot NEVER take the kids to McDonald's, so that will give you an idea of how bad I felt for him. The swelling had gone down considerably as of last night and he's back to camp today, with very strict instructions to not run or jump. Hopefully he remembers.

And due to the attention Gabe has gotten over his twisted ankle, over the course of the past two days, Dante has suffered from  1. An itchy armpit ("no, really, it's SO itchy!") 2. A cut on his tongue 3. An elbow that hurts when he bends it at an angle at which nobody's elbow should be able to bend, and 4. Sore feet.

I wouldn't be surprised if his feet actually were hurting a bit, though - in addition to running around at camp all week, Monday night was the first Youth Track meet of the season. It was a perfect night, and the turnout reflected that - 617 kids! 

Carmine ran 10 yards of his race before realizing I was not running next to him, at which point he threw himself on the ground. Once I grabbed his hand and asked if he wanted me to run with him, he got right up, said "Oh yeah, Mommy!" and we ran to the finish together. And then he spent the rest of the night yelling "RUN!!!  RACE!!!!"  I love hearing my 2-year-old say those words : )

Dante tied for first in his heat in the 100, Gabe came in 1st in his heat in the 100, and I think they were second and third in the 200. We decided to stay for the 400, even though Gabe had nearly collapsed after the 200. I told him he could only do the 400 if he didn't try to sprint the entire way. He actually listened to me!  He ran it slow and easy. But then he was mad at me for telling him to run slower, because he came in second-to-last.

Dante ran at a steady, even pace, and managed to come in 2nd in his heat! Those little legs have some serious speed!  It was a fabulously fun night, as always, and we're all looking forward to next week : )

We were watching Tour De France coverage the other day with the boys. I'm not as huge a biking fan as Scott is, but I do like watching some of the Tour. The boys lose interest after a while, but they do seem to kind of get that it's a big deal and it's kind of cool to watch. Some of the details are lost on them, though - as we watched, Gabe asked "Is this in New Jersey?"

Dante had no Tour de France commentary, but he did mention to me the other day that "You can't go to the center of the earth in just short sleeves, because you would die." I guess if you wear long sleeves, you'll be fine?

Mostly, though, it's all about the beach over here. This week Gabe and Dante are at camp, but our entire weekend was spent at the beach - 6 1/2 hours each day. Carmine was a champ. No nap, and no tantrums. A few episodes of whining, but the advantage to his unbelievably short attention span is that he's very easily distracted. And the beach offers so, so many possible distractions. 

It also offers so many ways to get hurt. Carmine is always wearing his sunglasses when we get to the beach, but he often takes them off at some point, and since he's always digging or kicking or throwing sand, he inevitably gets sand in his eyes, which he then tries to get rid of by rubbing his eyes with his hands - which, of course, are full of sand. It's almost comical - especially since he then walks around whining about how he has "sandcastles" in his eyes.

One time when it happened, I went up to the showers with him to rinse his face off, and he got his signals crossed somehow, because now every time we walk by the showers, he asks if we're going to "go DRY off?" 

This weekend marked the first time that he willingly went in the water without having a death grip on my hand or arm or neck. He was just splashing around at the water's edge, but he was doing so quite happily all by himself.

I'm kind of happy, because I love to see him enjoying the water, but I'm also thinking about the extra level of stress this will now add to our beach outings. My goal now is to keep him at the level of enjoying the water, but maintaining just enough of a healthy fear of it, too.

He does still prefer to have either me or Scott standing in the water near him, though. He'll come running over to us, wave his arm dramatically, tilt his little head to the side and say "Come follow me, go in water now!"  It's so darn cute, it's nearly impossible to resist. And then when you stand there with him, he marvels in amazement at every. single. wave. as it comes in. "Here comes another one!  Here comes another one!  Here comes another one!"  It must be pretty cool to be 2 and a half.

I know it's pretty cool to be a 2 1/2-year-old at the beach with us, because I actually uttered a sentence yesterday that I never imagined would have come out of my mouth:  "No, Carmine, you have to finish your pizza if you want to have Cheetos."  And after he finished his Cheetos, he had homemade chocolate chip cookies and a juice box.

And now you know why my kids love the beach so much.

Comments

[Wes]

LOL... Your kids are so funny (and cute!) Sorry to hear about Gabe's ankle, but hey, if it means a trip to the beach, I'm going outside to crack mine now!