Friday morning I was packing clothes, food, toiletries, etc. and Mr N was just losing it. He would freak out when I left the room, when I went downstairs, when I was more than 3 inches away from him. I finally realized he thought someone was leaving and it wouldn't be all of us together since that tends to be how things work. So I just picked him up and held him then told him that we were all going camping together. After that, he was fine. The rest of the packing went without whining or clinging. I forget that he understands so much, even though he can't express himself, he really does know what we are saying.
During therapy he touched head and said "head" a few times, I was stoked! My little man finally showed off his talent for his therapist! I get a little giddy when he does great things. He did something else during therapy that is very near and dear to my heart, his therapist was doing animal sounds with him and they did coyote howls and he did it several times. My dad used to do coyote howls with us, we'd do them in the car all together. I'm sure it was super annoying and loud but it was just something our dad did with us.
Friday after therapy I took the kids to set up camp while Daddy was on the commute home, I got the tent set up and beds arranged then headed back to pick up Daddy. Once we got Daddy out to camp with us we started a fire and roasted wieners, burgers, and marshmallows. I do not remember s'mores being so awesome, it's probably been 15 years since I've had one. I have been missing out.
Saturday morning Daddy woke up and took off fishing while the kids and I slept in. He came back to camp with his first catch and built a fire to cook his fish for breakfast. As I was getting up I noticed a lot more campers moved in overnight and there would be no bathing in the river. I took the best bath in a bowl I could, washing my pits, nether regions, and my hair. We got dressed and realized we'd packed far too few blankets, can not live without pillows and should probably have fishing license and ID with us. While Daddy did some more fishing, I ran home with the kids, wishing I'd brought my shower stuff back home and showered there. Sigh. We played in the river, had some lunch and enjoyed the rest of the day at camp. Mr N did great with camping, I was a bit worried about the sleeping in a tent for the first time, but he's a natural.
While we were playing in the river there were a couple of prospectors panning for gold. It was fun to watch and learn how much work goes into one tiny little fleck of gold. Mr N was super friendly and said "hi" to them several times. The wife asked how old he was, then commented on his lack of talking. I explained that he had autism, and how he's really making great progress and huge strides in speech, social skills and behavior. The husband commented that Mr N had talked to him. They both said Mr N was super cute and how they enjoyed watching him throw rocks in the river. The husband eagerly found bigger rocks for Mr N to throw. It was so neat seeing Mr N interact with complete strangers, saying hi, bye, accepting rocks, throwing rocks, making eye contact with them, etc. These are all new things for him, we've been seeing it with his therapist who has spent 3 hours a day with him for the last couple of months, we've seen some new interacting with friends whom he's been around a few times a week for 6+ months. Seeing him interact with a complete stranger is astounding.
We wrapped up the evening with bowl baths for everyone and went to bed quite early. We were exhausted and ready for some sleep. Being clean when climbing into bed is much more refreshing.
This morning Daddy headed out for some more fishing while the kids slept. I stayed in bed cuddled beneath the covers thinking about all the things we'll do differently next time we go camping. I took another bath in a bowl to the best of my ability without flashing the neighbors. Daddy and Mr N ran to the nearest gas station for some overpriced milk to get us through the day. After breakfast and getting dressed we headed up the road a bit for some more fishing away from all the people. Daddy caught two fish while the kids threw rocks in the river downstream. On our way back to camp for lunch we stopped by another camping area where we hadn't seen anyone. We found a decent place to fish and a place for the kids to play, so we headed back to camp for some lunch then back to our new spot to fish and play. Daddy caught one more fish, Mr N took a little nap, while E and I played with rocks in the river. Rocks are the bomb diggity, at least both kids think that is the case.
Hot, sweaty, stinky, and maybe a scoche cranky we headed to camp to pack up and head home. On our way back Mr N showed off his coyote howling talent for Daddy. We all howled and I took a mental picture of the moment to save in my heart forever. As we packed up we realized that my over packing was not working in our favor. We did get it all crammed in and started making lists of things not to bring next time. Extra chairs, tents, air mattresses, buckets, food, coolers, etc. No one even ate the potato salad I made.
My genius moment of the weekend was freezing gallons of water to put in the cooler to keep our food cold all weekend. This worked out brilliantly. I'm probably the last person to think of this, but I'll pretend I invented it.
One of my favorite things is when I hear Daddy working with Mr N on talking while I'm busy doing other stuff. He got Mr N to say "ka" the other day, it's so reassuring to know I'm not alone, we are a team. I'm not the only one down at the river playing and still working on learning skills, Daddy is right in there with me. Mr N's animal sounds have to be among my favorite things, he pants like a dog and, after much work on my part, he ruffs like a dog. LOVE IT! He meows and moos, next up I think I'll work on clucking like a chicken, because it'll be just darling.
We spent a good part of the weekend putting on sunscreen, OFF, and anti-itch cream. Mr N is the sweetest little boy ever, just ask the mosquitoes.
In conclusion, we will camp again but with modifications; thus, it was not a complete waste.
Did I mention that s'mores are pretty awesome? If you haven't had one in a while, I'd recommend it. Oh and whipped cream vodka in Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi for the win.
I felt the same way about s'mores on our camping trip! HOW did I ever forget how awesome they were?!?!
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