Day +1565: Off to camp!

Mina is off at Camp Okizu this week! The family arrived back in San Francisco on Thursday from their summer trip to the Northwest, then we had a few days to get settled. We took Mina to the bus just across the bridge in Emeryville on Monday morning. She was so excited. The parent volunteer asked her daughter, who is 8 or 9, to sit next to Mina, so Mina had someone to keep her company. They were going to watch a movie to help pass the time on the bus. Mina wasn't the least bit scared or worried. No crying, no hesitating, just got straight onto the bus and didn't look back. She has always had a tremendous amount of self-confidence and very little fear. Keri and I were both a little choked up watching how big and grown-up she was. It's pretty crazy to think about it, especially as nurse Amber reminds us, we've been talking about this moment for five years.

Then this morning we got a call from Camp Okizu. It was from the nurse, and she said "I'm the nurse at Camp Okizu and Mina is totally fine and having a great time. I just have a few questions about her contacts." I figured that was probably the issue so I wasn't really worried. Still, I'm glad she said right away that Mina was fine! Keri and I realized we should have sent detailed instructions on how to manage her contacts. She uses a cleaning solution with hydrogen peroxide, which needs to sit for six hours in a special case in order to neutralize. Somehow they had gotten it wrong and the contacts were really stinging Mina's eyes, so they took them out and she was wearing her glasses this morning. I called up there again tonight, and they had disinfected her contacts again for the six hours and she was wearing them. So it sounds like they had figured it out. That's the only real worry we've had about Mina at Camp Okizu -- her glasses are really so thick that she can't possibly see very well out of them, and it would be a real drag if she had to wear them all week. Otherwise, the people there are so fabulous -- just very warm, enthusiastic and competent -- and Mina is so self-confident that I have no doubt she will have a wonderful time. It really is a very special and magical place. They were all heading down to the campfire when I called up there tonight.

I'm sure it's a bit weird for Isaac to be here without his sister. He understands that she is six and he is too little to go, and frankly I'm quite sure it would be terrifying for him to go by himself this year. But he has been talking about going to the airplane museum a lot since they got back from their trip. At first I thought it was just because he was excited to be back in San Francisco and he was really looking forward to going back to the museum, which he enjoys. But eventually I realized it was because he needed to have a special place to go too, and that was the most special place he could think of. So he and I have a date to go there on Saturday. Yesterday was a bit of a surreal day for all of us. Isaac didn't want to talk about Mina at all. I know he enjoyed being here without her -- she's such a dominating personality that it's good for Isaac to have some time away. But it's like he doesn't quite know what to do with himself. Today at dinner, he brought up the topic, asking some questions about what we thought she was doing, etc. It helps a lot, both for Mina and Isaac, that we have been to Camp Okizu several times including twice in the last year, so it's very familiar to them. Keri has set up several playdates for Isaac this week, and I think the week will be good for him overall too. Keri did say that spending all day by herself with Isaac was a bit trying -- he can be a real chatterbox! At this age, it can be easier in some ways to have two.

The family had a great time in the Northwest, as usual. They got to experience the incredible heat wave where it got over 100 degrees in Seattle. They went out sailing on Lake Washington in a small boat, which was quite a thrill for Isaac. They went through the Montlake Ship Canal and under the Montlake Ave. drawbridge, which has to go up whenever a sailboat wants to pass because the masts are too high. Isaac is still talking about going out on Marty's boat. The kids also were in a camp in Everett where they got to take a boat trip to an island in the Sound, go to a petting zoo, and go ice skating. Isaac sometimes has had a hard time going to places like that, and at first he wasn't sure he wanted to go, but as they arrived he told Keri he was OK and she didn't have to stay with him. He's getting big. While the kids were at camp, Keri got to fly in a Cessna from Anacortes to Orcas Island for lunch. They did a little tour around the San Juans on the way back and then Keri stayed with her friend Zeedie in Anacortes.

We also spent several days in Wenatchee, where we swam and went rock climbing. Mom and Dad took us back to what they now call "Mina's route" and Mina climbed it again. The first time she climbed it last year she didn't think about it at all and just zoomed right up. When she climbed it again, she was more aware of what she was doing and got stuck at a hard part and wanted to come down. I was curious to see how she would do this year. Sure enough, she got stuck again at the same hard spot where she got stuck last year, and she stayed in one spot on the rock for a long time. The longer she stayed, the more I figured she was going to want to come back down. But eventually she maneuvered herself sideways a little ways and was able to pick out a route past the hard part and all the way to the top again! It took real determination for her to do that and I was very proud of her. She told me this time at Camp Okizu she's going to climb all the way to the top of the tree and ring the bell, and I won't be surprised at all if she does.

We also spent some time at the pool, and Isaac swam out into the deep end of the pool by himself for the first time with floaties and a noodle. I showed Mina how to do a cannonball, and then the next week I got a call from Mina after Auntie Teri had taken them to a lake, and Mina was so excited to tell me she had done a cannonball off the diving board! Isaac got on the phone to tell me he didn't go off the diving board, but he had swum out to a dock in the lake. Teri had bought them life jackets to wear so they could go all over the place on their own. We also went to the annual Kaminsky family camping trip at Lake Mayfield in SW Washington, where the kids rode bikes around camp and Keri's Uncle Peter took everyone out on his boat. Mina enjoyed playing with cousin Zoe, and the two of them rode on inner tubes together behind Peter's boat. Isaac didn't go on the inner tube, but instead he got to drive the boat! Uncle Peter was really great about putting on of the kids on his lap while he was pulling the inner tubes. Peter would point left or right, and Isaac would turn the wheel the way Peter said. Peter would of course grab the wheel whenever things got a little tricky. Isaac was thrilled.

We brought the kids' bikes with us, and they enjoyed riding them around at Lake Mayfield and a little bit in Wenatchee. But Isaac's skute bike got a big gouge in the tire, and rather than stuff it back into the trunk for the trip home, Keri decided to leave it at Auntie Teri's house so her cousin Shannon's daughter Ava could use it. Isaac loved his skute bike, but he is so tall that he was really way too big for it. He was very sad to leave it behind -- he cried and gave it a hug. And he has been a little hesitant to try out the pedal bike we have for him, partly out of anxiety but partly also because he was so happy on his skute bike. Well, Sunday I finally got him on the pedal bike. While we were walking to the park to try it out, he told me Ava could use his skute bike, but he wanted it back eventually. At the park, I held onto him and walked him around for about five minutes while he got used to pedaling. At first he was very insistent that I hold onto him and not let go, but after a few minutes he started to get comfortable with it and then I let him go on his own a couple of times. The skute bike is so great at training kids to use a real bike, because Isaac knew instinctively how the bike was going to behave, when to put his feet down, etc. After about five minutes I just gave him a big shove and off he went, zooming around the playground pedaling like crazy. He even learned how to start himself. It took him a few tries, but after he did it once or twice he did *not* want me to help him. It was so much fun to watch him cruising all over the place. At one point he came up to me and said "Ava can keep the skute bike forever. *This* is *my* bike!" Since then he has wanted to ride his bike every day. The bike is the same one that Mina has been using -- we have a bigger bike for Mina, which she is also now very comfortable on after spending a few minutes getting used to it. So we will now be much more mobile on our walks!