Sleepaway camp redux

So, we dropped Rachel off at a Girl Scout camp called Potomac Woods in Leesburg. Mom and Dad may remember dropping me off at Girl Scout camp in Glen Spey, NY, years ago. I told Rachel that the first time that I got to go away to SLEEPAWAY CAMP was when I was 11. She found that pretty hilarious. (Remember, Mom and Dad, that I didn't want to come home? That you ended up signing me up for another two weeks? The sense of independence and freedom were heady, and that camp was where I got a first taste of living outdoors and fell in love with the idea of camping and canoeing, which lasts to this day. So, a belated thank-you.)

Drew was extremely impressed at how organized everything was. All the counselors appeared to be from Scotland -- they all had funny camp names like "Ping" and "Scotland" and delightful British Isles accents. We asked one woman about the Scotland independence referendum and she said she'd be voting "no." The first thing we did was drop off Rachel's big duffel and sleeping bag in an area labeled "Hill High" for the youngest kids (because they are, adorably, only hill high), then smuggled in our letters. They checked Rachel and all the other kids for head lice, and then the moment came to say goodbye. Probably guessing that we expected her to make a scene, Rachel played it very cool. "Bye!" she said, lifting one hand. "Bye!" she said, lifting the other, and walking off. Then she turned around, grinned, and allowed each of us to hug her...and she was off. I got a little teary-eyed thinking that this is the first of one of many goodbyes we'll be saying to her throughout her life.

...When it came time to pick her up, it felt as if she had grown an entire grade in two days! Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, she had on a camp T-shirt decorated with the names of her fellow campers and counselors, a cute camp cap that was also colorfully decorated, and...she had lost another tooth! So, now, she has an adorable gap-toothed smile and she has developed a lisp because there are two teeth missing at the top of her mouth! I grabbed her up in my arms and started crying a bit, because I realized that I missed her so much and she looked so grown-up and...well, she's getting there. Way too fast.