A couple days before leaving, he was going to bed and being very clingy to me. I asked him what was wrong (not a question he can always answer well). Cade said that he was scared about camping because it would get dark and because he'd miss me. We were able to talk about having a light on at night so it wouldn't be too dark, about talking to his grandma if he was scared, and that he could call us and come home if he was really scared. This calmed him down and he started getting excited to go. I was impressed by his ability to tell me how he was feeling and why, as well as engage with me in some problem solving.
While camping, he had a great time with his cousins. He tried new things (swimming under water in a lake and going down a 20 ft. water slide) and shared his beloved ipad with his cousins very well. He got nervous one night, but grandma stayed with him until he fell asleep and he was fine. The next night, he came out of the camper and said "It's 8:00. Time for me to eat my nuts, watch a video, and relax." Communicating his routine and being able to follow it helped his anxiety a lot that night. When he came home he said, "Mom, I just ate my nuts and watched a video, and I wasn't scared!".
When he came home, we asked lots of questions, and he answered them mostly with answers that were pertinent to the question asked. We heard all about swimming in the lake, playing with his cousins, and toasting marshmallows. Oh, and of course all about the giant water slide ("I went down six times!!")
We'll all be camping together over Labor Day, so it will be nice to see first hand how he does and be in a new environment where we can evaluate progress.
Going into the wilderness,
Becky
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