My stomach is in Knots and it is questionable as to whether I will get a good nights sleep for the next five sundown to sunrise cycles.

You see, I sent my second born all the way across the country this morning. To Washington D.C.. Without a parent.

Yes, their are chaperone's. Yes their are tour guides. Yes, my head tells me he will be fine.

Unfortunately, it is my heart that isn't quite going along with the whole thing.

Oh, he will have a wonderful time. He and 26 other student's will be touring Amish country, visiting Civil War battlegrounds, taking a tour of the White House and Washington Monument (thanks to our local congressman for arranging those two), laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, visiting the Vietnam memorial, and the list goes on and on.

Six jam packed days of History and fun.

However, their is one minor point in this whole thing that is causing me some anxiety. The one that my husband thinks, I am sure, is ridiculous.

Who will be there to remind him?

You know, remind him to make sure he hasn't left anything in the hotel room when they pack up each morning at 6:00 a.m.. Do you have your wallet? Everything out of the bathroom?

You see, they change hotel rooms almost every day. That is a lot of picking up and packing for a 14 year old boy.

I know, I know, it will be a great learning experiencing for him. He will learn responsibility and how to take care of himself. I understand that.

I also understand that this is my child who is most like his father. We like to call them "The absent minded professors". They are both very smart. Love math and science and just learning.

At times I think that their heads are so full of important stuff, like how to solve quadratic equations (spelling?) that their brain has no room for simple things like multi tasking and remembering where you put your keys.

I know at some point we have to gently nudge our children out into the real world to sink or swim.

I would just prefer that my sweet second born wasn't sinking 3,000 miles away.

Maybe I will be pleasantly surprised and he wont leave a trail of lost items from D.C. to Pennsylvania.

This is what this poor child had to listen to from his mother this morning at 5:00am.

"Tyler, try and remember to put all your toiletries back into your suitcase right after you use them, only charge your cell phone in the bathroom so you will be sure and see it, keep twenty dollars in your pants pocket so you won't always be having to get your wallet out, don't forget to call for your wake up call so you don't oversleep" and I went on and on. My poor poor child.

At 5:45 this morning he was on his way to the airport. I laid back into my bed trying to block all the things from my mind that I thought he may have forgotten. Suddenly I had the most awful realization.

I FORGOT TO TELL MY CHILD THAT I LOVED HIM BEFORE HE DROVE OFF IN THE CAR.

I am horrified at myself. I was so worried about all these things that really don't matter that I forgot the one thing that was the most important. Making sure my child knew how much I loved him and that I would miss him while he was gone.

Tonight when he calls after his first day of adventure I will not ask if he remembered this or that.

I will just listen to his stories of the day and tell him how much I love him.

Though I am still pretty sure I won't sleep well until my sweet boy is home in his own bed.

Have a great time, Tyler, I love you.

Labels: getting away from it all, kids