At 2 p.m. today Zoe will be a YMCA overnight camp. Overnight camp wasn’t even on my radar for her when the year began, I didn’t even think it was an option. However, Zoe had other plans for herself and she started campaigning for it as soon as the brochure touched her hands.

She’s never stayed overnight at anyone’s home before that we were not related to. And to be honest, we’ve never even had a babysitter that wasn’t a relative either. The years of my childhood where you’d hire any teenager to watch your kid for $1 an hour are long gone. 

Anyhow, she’s leaving today for camp, and she’s pretty excited. She got a new sleeping bag for it, which she’s slept in for the last two days. I’m not sure how Maisy is going to handle this though. She freaks out whenever Zoe isn’t here, especially at bedtime. They’ve slept together every night for seven year now. Maisy has an internal clock that tells her it’s bedtime at 8:30 p.m. and she heads into Zoe’s room and curls up on the pink blanket on the foot of Zoe’s bed.

As for me, it’s going to be strange without her here, but I have a feeling that I’ll be just fine. I see a few bike rides over the next three days and probably a movie.

And perhaps I take this opportunity to clean out all of clutter that haunts her bedroom.