"PARTEE....FRIIII!! HAPPY BIRDA PARTEE!!"
No, no Luigi... not Happy Birthday Party, Happy Summer Party
No, no Luigi... not Happy Birthday Party, Happy Summer Party
"HAPPY SUMMA PARTEE!!"
I've worked with Luigi the past two summers at a week each. My first year, he was a lot more behavioural and aggressive, and was one of the most challenging campers I had all summer in 2008. Last year he was sick most of the time, and slept, but definitely showed me that he had grown up and matured quite a lot. When I found out I would be with Luigi last Friday, I was super excited to see how much further he had come since my summer working with him in 2009.
Luigi is a brilliant young boy. He sees things in our world (and pays acute attention to them) that the rest of us would never even glance at. He can find the simplest joy in something really quite ordinary (a lesson he taught me and which I appreciate so, so much).
Monday morning Luigi arrived at camp looking quite sleepy and determined to find the most comfortable location to plop himself for a little while. I determined this based on the sleep crust he still had in the corners of his eyes and his level 7.5 (of 10) bed head he was sporting. Luigi has terrible allergies, and with the extreme heat and humidity we were graced with with the first part of this week this just seemed to be magnified for him. But he did stay with his group ALL day on Monday. ALL DAY!! In the past, Luigi has sort of been the commander of his own show. If I made him a visual daily schedule, he'd review it and then begin to rearrange the schedule created so that it read: swimming, swimming, swimming, lunch, swimming, swimming, swimming, bus, home. So this was a wonderful improvement. He sat with the group during ice breaker games, which lasted a good hour. THIS was also a marked improvement... he sat for an hour, and not because he was sleeping. He sat with his group and observed all that was happening, and didn't fuss or grumble. He did so awesome with transitioning from activity to activity this whole week, and didn't even need a visual schedule whatsoever!
It was 40C with humidity on Monday, and Luigi came to camp wearing long warm-up pants and a long sleeve t-shirt. During recent weeks, he and his family had taken a cruise to Alaska, and what he had been wearing during this time was cooler weather clothes. But when he came home he refused to wear his summer clothes again. His mum had written me a letter explaining this situation and said I could try to get him changed if I felt up to it, but not to worry if he was adamant about not changing. Our only "challenging" moment this week took place on Monday afternoon, where Kim and I (and Kylie for a small bit) attempted to convince Luigi to change into his shorts and t-shirt. It was really quite dramatic... he flayeld, he screamed, he smooshed himself into the bean bag chair. And 15 minutes passed and he was fine again. We picked up our things and marched on HOT march over to the senior pavilion for songs and bus departure. He did, however, look at me and say "hot" while we were there, and he pulled out his t-shirt and changed into it. 4.5 minutes later he was changing back into his long sleeved shirt. At least he tried it out!
But his allergies were absolutely terrible on Monday, and it prevented him from coming to camp at all on Tuesday. I was pretty bummed.
Wednesday rolled around and so did Luigi, still fairly congested, tired, and irritable. BUT, he WAS wearing shorts and a t-shirt, so HOLLA to that! Luigi had a stellar Wednesday, despite the boringness of the day overall. Theme day is actually not something that is fun, especially for kids like Luigi who thrive on structured activities that do not involve running and playing various kinds of tag in 38C heat. Swimming was especially wonderful on Wednesday just for this reason. On this day, Luigi also threw his water mask over the swimming barrier/wall and, despite my long-armed reach to save it, it sunk too fast and is now collecting slime at the bottom of Christie Lake. As are two Hot Wheels cars and a whack load of glow in the dark gimp.
Thursday was also awesome. Although he was still really tired, and he spent his entire morning sleeping in a storage container all morning. It was quite a humourous site to see... Luigi lying in a storage container with the lid on top and just his legs sticking out. Various kids walked by him on their way to the washroom and asked why he was in there. Straight-faced, I told them he wasn't doing a good job listening and so I stuffed him in there. They quickly did their business and ran back to their groups ;).
Friday. We knew it would come eventually. It was not just any Friday. It was the last Friday of camp. Of the summer. There was a certain gloom and doom about the day, aside from what was stormy weather at times. Counsellors had checked out about a week ago (if they weren't already burnt out by week 3). Nothing was really going on. Luigi and I spent some time sitting and watching the rain fall. We shared a TON of hugs and special moments <3 style="font-weight: bold;">hands down the fastest flying summer of my entire life. I vividly remember sitting in training with Katherine in June thinking about how 9 weeks seems so daunting. Now it's the day after the last day of those 9 weeks, and I cannot begin to comprehend how short this whole summer seemed to be. It was such an amazing summer though. I got to work with 9 A-M-A-Z-I-N-G kids this summer, each of whom helped me strengthen my own skills working in this field. I got to work with the best staff in all of camp, who were always there if I needed help with anything, or to just share in a laugh or wonderful moment. And even though I am extremely exhausted right now because of it all, and have been virtually all summer, I would never for a second trade any of it in for a different life. I love each and every kid to come to Helping Hands, and I love the people I work with. And my using the word "love" is not intended lightly. I can honestly say I love these kids and people in every sense of the word. This is why camp's end is so hard for me... I am not going to see these people on a daily basis anymore. Camp's conclusion happens so abruptly... You get on the school bus, and it drives you home. You can't linger behind because the bus will leave without you, and it's a long hike home. But it has to happen.
On the way home yesterday, Cameron, who is 7, told me this about summer ending: "But if summer doesn't end, Christine, you can't have things like Halloween, Christmas, or snow days. Summer has to end so that we can make snow forts, ok?". Well, I like Halloween, I like Christmas, and I like snow days and snow forts. So it's not such a terrible thing, this change of seasons. But it still makes me really sad.
Anyhow, I don't have a camper's house to call this weekend, or paper work to complete. I'm just going to enjoy doing nothing for the next week, then jump into school board work once more.
I am extremely thankful for every aspect of Summer 2010.
Kudos' of the week:
1. To Alicia who had one amazing week with Matthew!!
2. To Kylie who toughed it out with Peruvian something or other and still came to work
3. To Kailee who had to spend the last week downtown :-(
4. To Christina Wood and Kim for being amazing bosses to the HH team ALL summer
5. To Kortnie who did a sweet job distracting Gregor during his most expressive moments
6. To the entire Helping Hands team for working so hard and contributing to my summer. I love you all very much.
Luigi is a brilliant young boy. He sees things in our world (and pays acute attention to them) that the rest of us would never even glance at. He can find the simplest joy in something really quite ordinary (a lesson he taught me and which I appreciate so, so much).
Monday morning Luigi arrived at camp looking quite sleepy and determined to find the most comfortable location to plop himself for a little while. I determined this based on the sleep crust he still had in the corners of his eyes and his level 7.5 (of 10) bed head he was sporting. Luigi has terrible allergies, and with the extreme heat and humidity we were graced with with the first part of this week this just seemed to be magnified for him. But he did stay with his group ALL day on Monday. ALL DAY!! In the past, Luigi has sort of been the commander of his own show. If I made him a visual daily schedule, he'd review it and then begin to rearrange the schedule created so that it read: swimming, swimming, swimming, lunch, swimming, swimming, swimming, bus, home. So this was a wonderful improvement. He sat with the group during ice breaker games, which lasted a good hour. THIS was also a marked improvement... he sat for an hour, and not because he was sleeping. He sat with his group and observed all that was happening, and didn't fuss or grumble. He did so awesome with transitioning from activity to activity this whole week, and didn't even need a visual schedule whatsoever!
It was 40C with humidity on Monday, and Luigi came to camp wearing long warm-up pants and a long sleeve t-shirt. During recent weeks, he and his family had taken a cruise to Alaska, and what he had been wearing during this time was cooler weather clothes. But when he came home he refused to wear his summer clothes again. His mum had written me a letter explaining this situation and said I could try to get him changed if I felt up to it, but not to worry if he was adamant about not changing. Our only "challenging" moment this week took place on Monday afternoon, where Kim and I (and Kylie for a small bit) attempted to convince Luigi to change into his shorts and t-shirt. It was really quite dramatic... he flayeld, he screamed, he smooshed himself into the bean bag chair. And 15 minutes passed and he was fine again. We picked up our things and marched on HOT march over to the senior pavilion for songs and bus departure. He did, however, look at me and say "hot" while we were there, and he pulled out his t-shirt and changed into it. 4.5 minutes later he was changing back into his long sleeved shirt. At least he tried it out!
But his allergies were absolutely terrible on Monday, and it prevented him from coming to camp at all on Tuesday. I was pretty bummed.
Wednesday rolled around and so did Luigi, still fairly congested, tired, and irritable. BUT, he WAS wearing shorts and a t-shirt, so HOLLA to that! Luigi had a stellar Wednesday, despite the boringness of the day overall. Theme day is actually not something that is fun, especially for kids like Luigi who thrive on structured activities that do not involve running and playing various kinds of tag in 38C heat. Swimming was especially wonderful on Wednesday just for this reason. On this day, Luigi also threw his water mask over the swimming barrier/wall and, despite my long-armed reach to save it, it sunk too fast and is now collecting slime at the bottom of Christie Lake. As are two Hot Wheels cars and a whack load of glow in the dark gimp.
Thursday was also awesome. Although he was still really tired, and he spent his entire morning sleeping in a storage container all morning. It was quite a humourous site to see... Luigi lying in a storage container with the lid on top and just his legs sticking out. Various kids walked by him on their way to the washroom and asked why he was in there. Straight-faced, I told them he wasn't doing a good job listening and so I stuffed him in there. They quickly did their business and ran back to their groups ;).
Friday. We knew it would come eventually. It was not just any Friday. It was the last Friday of camp. Of the summer. There was a certain gloom and doom about the day, aside from what was stormy weather at times. Counsellors had checked out about a week ago (if they weren't already burnt out by week 3). Nothing was really going on. Luigi and I spent some time sitting and watching the rain fall. We shared a TON of hugs and special moments <3 style="font-weight: bold;">hands down the fastest flying summer of my entire life. I vividly remember sitting in training with Katherine in June thinking about how 9 weeks seems so daunting. Now it's the day after the last day of those 9 weeks, and I cannot begin to comprehend how short this whole summer seemed to be. It was such an amazing summer though. I got to work with 9 A-M-A-Z-I-N-G kids this summer, each of whom helped me strengthen my own skills working in this field. I got to work with the best staff in all of camp, who were always there if I needed help with anything, or to just share in a laugh or wonderful moment. And even though I am extremely exhausted right now because of it all, and have been virtually all summer, I would never for a second trade any of it in for a different life. I love each and every kid to come to Helping Hands, and I love the people I work with. And my using the word "love" is not intended lightly. I can honestly say I love these kids and people in every sense of the word. This is why camp's end is so hard for me... I am not going to see these people on a daily basis anymore. Camp's conclusion happens so abruptly... You get on the school bus, and it drives you home. You can't linger behind because the bus will leave without you, and it's a long hike home. But it has to happen.
On the way home yesterday, Cameron, who is 7, told me this about summer ending: "But if summer doesn't end, Christine, you can't have things like Halloween, Christmas, or snow days. Summer has to end so that we can make snow forts, ok?". Well, I like Halloween, I like Christmas, and I like snow days and snow forts. So it's not such a terrible thing, this change of seasons. But it still makes me really sad.
Anyhow, I don't have a camper's house to call this weekend, or paper work to complete. I'm just going to enjoy doing nothing for the next week, then jump into school board work once more.
I am extremely thankful for every aspect of Summer 2010.
Kudos' of the week:
1. To Alicia who had one amazing week with Matthew!!
2. To Kylie who toughed it out with Peruvian something or other and still came to work
3. To Kailee who had to spend the last week downtown :-(
4. To Christina Wood and Kim for being amazing bosses to the HH team ALL summer
5. To Kortnie who did a sweet job distracting Gregor during his most expressive moments
6. To the entire Helping Hands team for working so hard and contributing to my summer. I love you all very much.
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