Bringing back baby

Tags

car, College, empty nest, postaday2013, road trip, spring break, university, vacation

Today, sniff, sniff, we had to drive our baby girl back to her school. The spring break vacation was over and it was time to get her back to her studies. I had just gotten used to having my baby girl back home and it was already time to drive her away from home back to her college domain. Tomorrow is sure going to be quiet. Our baby girl was excited to get back to school and I am grateful for that. It would be awful if she was miserable or feeling overwhelmed. Instead she went back with a huge smile on her face, ready to continue with her academic work and enthusiastic about her future. I can tell you that when your child feels that way, it lightens your heart and your spirit and you sleep much better at night, knowing that since your child is in a good place emotionally and mentally, they will tend to make much better choices in their daily lives or at least you hope. I have faith in my baby girl, she spends a nice amount of time on self-reflection and she keeps me in her orbit, to which I feel lucky to be included.

I miss the little baby girl, but I really love seeing the young lady that she is growing into and spending time listening to her dream and plan her future career and adventures is exciting. Seeing a child grow up is almost like having two lives, you are as invested in their happiness as you are in your own. You celebrate their triumphs even more than you would your own, when they hurt, it hurts you just as deeply. The connection between parent and child is incredible in all of its complexity and depth. An amazing gift.

Parental pride

Tags

bragging, child, College, parent, postaday2012, pride

Before sitting down to write this post, I checked in with the baby girl to ask for permission  to brag about her grades from her very first semester at college. She said “brag away Maman, brag away”. I am so very proud of her and all of her hard work this semester. She did exceptionally well taking initiative on her own when it came to seeking help when she needed it and made sure to take advantage of all the tools and homework services that the college made available for the students. She didn’t get carried away with abrupt and often overwhelming feeling of complete “freedom” from the usual household rules. She behaved very responsibly and showed us a lot of maturity her first semester away from home.

What makes me especially happy is that she is proud of herself and now has concrete proof that there is nothing that she can’t accomplish if she puts her mind to it. She came into my room and announced that she had gotten an A+ in Psychology, an A in Art History, a B in English, an A in College Algaebra and an A in First Year Experience.

As a parent, one always worries about their child no matter what age they are; when your child passes a special threshold and does it with such success, the happiness that you feel over their hard work, their accomplishment and their increasing signs of independence is something that warms your heart and lifts your spirits.

Doing our parental duty this weekend

Tags

College, food, restaurants, scripted activities, soft shell crab, travel, vacation

When the baby girl calls, my hubby and I answer asking, “what can we do for you and where would you like to eat?” We both remember being away for the first time from our parents, granted it was eons ago, but we still remember. So when the baby girl calls several times during the week, asking if we are coming for Parents Weekend and if instead of doing the scripted activities, we could come and take her out for sushi, bring her the horseback riding stuff that was left behind in her vast room and perhaps go walk around the mall and visit a few stores, how could we say no?

We are lucky that her college is only an hour and twenty minutes from our house so a round trip isn’t too much driving. My hubby found a really nice sushi place where they even had an all you can eat sushi buffet for 15 dollars. We didn’t do the buffet, I can’t picture buffet and sushi together in a good way. We ordered from the menu, my baby girl and I shared four rolls between us, a monster roll, a dragon roll, a caterpillar roll and a Philadelphia roll. They all share avocado in common, rice, nori, the philadelphia roll is the only one that had cream cheese and smoked salmon, the other three had smoked eel, spicy tuna and Maura tuna. My hubby had scallops tempura and a spider roll, this one has soft shell crab tempura, avocado, cucumber, rice and nori. So lunch was a hit.

The mall was another homerun, the baby girl found her favorite store, found the things she needed really quickly and before it ever became too painful, we were done with the mall. So after good food and good shopping, we dropped off the baby girl in front of her dorm and we were back home to Rex and Jack in time for their early evening walk since our baby boy was over earlier to feed them.

As parents we are feeling very productive today, don’t worry, we never let that go to our heads. We are parents after all to young adults, what do we know?