Welcome to Aunt Camp

Yesterday morning I dropped Caroline off at soccer camp and then picked up Gulley so we could meet Jen halfway between Dallas and San Antonio to pick up her little boy, Lincoln.

Actually, I stopped at Starbucks in between dropping Caroline off and picking up Gulley because CAFFEINE. I also feel the need to let you know this particular Starbucks was experiencing an air-conditioning outage which just seems so wrong for a coffee shop. I nearly ordered an iced coffee until I remembered I don’t like cold coffee.

But then I picked up Gulley and we had no shortage of things to discuss as we made our way to the Chick-Fil-A we’d designated as the official meeting point. We made it there before Jen and Linc arrived and decided we might as well eat some nuggets while we waited.

Once they got there, Linc wasn’t interested in waiting in line for some nuggets because he was just ready to get to “AUNT CAMP”. And so we loaded his little bag into my car, strapped him in his car seat and headed back to San Antonio. We felt we got off to a shaky start when he announced he was going to refer to us as “Aunt Stinky” but he ultimately opted for Aunt Gulley and Aunt Mel, thankfully. Although I did spend an entire summer after college being called “Miss Smelly” while I taught swim lessons to toddlers who couldn’t quite manage “Miss Melanie” so this is apparently a theme in my life.

Also, Gulley and I discovered on the trip back to San Antonio the wonder that is streaming episodes of Paw Patrol on an iPhone which is a technological marvel we didn’t have access to when our kids were four. Or maybe it existed and we just still had flip phones because we are late adopters of new technology.

Eventually, we made it to Gulley’s house where Linc was beside himself to see Will’s “dragon” because Will does, in fact, still have Hank the bearded dragon. But Linc was in such complete disbelief that he was about to be able to pet an actual dragon that we began to worry we’d oversold what is essentially a large lizard that neither flies nor breathes fire. However, he seemed to be duly impressed by Hank which just goes to show that you never know what will be a crowd pleaser.

I picked up Caroline from Bops and Mimi’s house and then we met Gulley, her boys and Linc at the pool where we remembered what it means to actually have to catch someone off the diving board and put on floaties and go from the baby pool to the diving pool to the big pool and help someone back down the steps of the slide because they change their mind within the course of a three minute time span.

God go with you, mamas of toddlers.

And I died laughing as Gulley and I ventured into the baby pool with him in what was our first baby pool expedition in several years and Gulley glanced around at all the young mamas sitting and watching their littles splash and announced, “We aren’t the grandmas, we’re the aunts.” Because those mamas around the baby pool look younger and younger every year.

I also can’t underestimate how much it helps to have three built-in babysitters who were all fighting to take care of him.

One of the best things about being with the child of one of your dearest friends is seeing how you may be able to fight city hall, but you can’t fight DNA. This is Linc as he gave us all loud commands through the megaphone on the playscape at the pool.

I have no idea what he was actually yelling but he felt very passionate about it and that’s really all that matters.

But my favorite moment was when we decided it was easiest to feed Linc dinner at the pool and he told us he wanted chicken fingers. Jackson chose to get a hamburger even though that wasn’t technically his dinner but rather a snack because he’s thirteen and grows an inch taller every minute. The boys sat side by side eating their food but Lincoln kept reaching over and helping himself to Jackson’s potato chips. Gulley leaned over to me and said, “That apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Because Jen is famous for ordering what she thinks is the best, healthiest choice (steamed veggies with a side of rice) and then eating off the plate of the person next to her who ordered what is clearly the more delicious choice (cheese enchiladas). It made us so happy to see this character trait has proven to be dominant.

We finally decided it was time to head home because Linc was clearly about to cross the threshold into overtired or as we call it “sadder than a pickle that’s been eaten” which is an actual thing Caroline told us when she was four and devastated to leave the pool one day. Gulley got him packed up and they headed to her house where he’s spending the night because we figured he’d want to sleep in the room with her boys. And, sure enough, he declared that he was so happy to be sleeping with “his friends” although he was very concerned about where Caroline and I sleep. Most importantly, he declared that his stuffed dog named “Nothing” loves Aunt Camp and so we’re declaring day one to be a complete success.

Not to mention that Gulley had him bathed and in bed by 7:30 and just sent me this pic which shows he has clearly managed to make himself right at home.

Rumor has it that tomorrow we’re hitting the train at the zoo. And praying for no rain. And I’m personally praying we don’t have to actually go in the zoo because venturing back into the baby pool is one thing, but having to smell the rhinos is a whole different animal.

Literally.