It's a new day, it's a new dawn......

I cannot believe how quickly this time has come around, Dexter going away to Cub Camp. He is going with all his friends and together they are going to do outdoor things like hiking and swimming in a lake. They are going to be learning how to cook, clean and well camp in the outdoors and although they are under close supervision of adults, they are learning to do things for themselves as part of a pack! He is so excited about it, as are all his friends, this is after all, a big adventure.

Thinking back to when I went camping for the first time, I remember it was really exciting for me too. It is only now however that I understand how my Mum felt letting me go to these things. Whilst as a child I desperately wanted to go away on camping trips with my friends, my Mum worried and eventually reluctantly let me go. I know she felt she was losing her baby a little bit more in letting me do these things.  Whilst I feel this slightly, I have honestly enjoyed every single stage of Dexter's development, and I just think that he is going to return even better (can that be possible?)! Whilst I look back on stages of his growth and feel a twinge of sadness that he is no longer that, I love the person he has become, he has grown into, and there is not one stage that I love or have loved more than the next. Each stage of his development has melted easily into the next until before I realise he is nearly 10! Logically, him going to camp therefore should be no different, it is only a 3 night camping trip after all. It is just that though, right now him going away for 3 nights without us really does feel like a new day dawning for him as well as Anders and I.

So Anders and I are both going to hugely miss our little lovely who is excited and ready to go with his new rucksack and list of things he was told to bring with him. We know he needs to find his own space, carve his own identity without us directly being there, and that my little lovely is excited at the thought of what he is going to learn and experience. I am smiling just thinking about that as I remember feeling exactly the same way when I went away on my first guide camping trip!  His best friend is even having his birthday on this trip, and is bringing a birthday cake to celebrate so it seems like it is going to be a fun packed weekend.  

For Anders and I, it is going to be our own little adventure, doing grown up things and going to places where Dexter would not be allowed that we would therefore normally pass on because of this! We are going to stay out late!!! I think we are going to see some Fringe and Edinburgh Festival shows, not sure what yet and perhaps will even go for cocktails and maybe even so some street photography at night! We will miss our little lovely though.....