The Lad® has spent a week at his grandparents. He has been out there before for a few days at a time and there was some concern about how the grands would have managed with him for a whole week, but unreliable sources (my eyes) indicate that they are not as worn out as we may have dreaded.
The passage of a mere week, however, was marked by some significant albeit ineffable changes in The Lad®. There is a bit more maturity in his voice as he speaks and last night he was casually talking about as he put it, his "little girlfriend" from the swim classes he took while he was with his grandparents. For a more obvious sign of growth was his use of the word "unraveled" to talk about the metres of toilet paper heaped on the floor under the roll. He gave me the sense that the toilet paper fell off on its own rather than encounter his own kittenish curiosity with the roll. I digress.
The changes that occurred this week, apart from the vocab, made me wonder how much you can actually miss by always being there. Were the changes in his tone, the look in his face and the confidence that probably came from a week of fun swimming matters of course that are too subtle to catch each day? It could be that the changes are less perceptible when you are always on top of him, but I'm pretty sure that the version of independence that occurs at Baba and Papa's, not to mention the new social circle at swimming lessons, prompted the changes we noticed after a week apart. As minor as they were they are undeniable.
What will we notice after summer camps a few years from now?
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