Oh no feel better @HappyFace2018 my mom says now that’s she’s back to work she always expects a call between 3 and 3:15 which is when we always got home from school. It’s hard to break habit
@mom23travelers thanks for the insight on the infrequent calls, it helps to hear that the ‘wait it out’ approach works and that I’m not being a bad mom by not insisting that he call. I haven’t pushed the issue with S16 since he’s still texting with us almost every day, and he even sent us one of his lab assignments so we could see what he was working on (he used to like to share his computer programs with us, so we were thrilled to see he still wants to share projects with us even from college). He never is much for phone calls, so I’m letting him take the lead by not bugging him to call me. Although, I do mention when I’ll be free in case he has time to call. I think time just slips by for him, since I often get texts at midnight. I guess all of this is a good thing - he’s keeping busy and we have some evidence that he completed at least one assignment so far. I still would love to hear his voice, or even better, catch up on Facetime, but I’ll let him take the lead on when we can catch up that way.
Thanks everyone. I slept like a rock last night and work up outta the clear blue at 2:00am. Good grief. I have my annual physical fitness assessments tomorrow…gonna be the slowest 1 1/2 miles I’ve ever run 
@HappyFace2018 If it’s any consolation , your slowest would easily be my fastest even on a good day. I can’t run unless sketching big and furry is chasing me or George Clooney or Chris Evans are in front of me. Good luck today.
D16 has strep and made it to one class Tuesday, 0 classes yesterday (although I believe she only had one), and possibly won’t make it today - she went to the health center yesterday with a 103F fever - she had to get someone to drive her because she didn’t trust herself to walk across campus. They were actually concerned that it might be mono, so I ended up being happy that it’s strep. I know she’ll feel better after a few doses of antibiotics, but it was hard receiving all those “I feel miserable” texts and not being able to do anything. She mentioned that one bright spot is that all of her new friends are taking care of her.
I have been calling S19 by D’s name (that certainly never happened before - he usually gets the dog’s name) and still have moments where I expect her to walk in the door. I also went into S19’s room at noon to wake him up on Tuesday, forgetting that he had actually gotten up at 6:30 and gone to the first day of school.
I hope your D feels better! @eh1234
@eh1234 sending healthy vibes and all that to your D16!
@carolinamom2boys George Clooney would certainly increase my run time, too! :x
@eh1234 hope your D is well soon! I love that her friends are taking care of her.
Good luck @HappyFace2018 !
Not much new on our end.
We still only hear from S16 sporadically, and we’re trying not to text him much ourselves as we don’t want him to feel like we’re constantly intruding. Plus his typical one word answers are hardly useful information.
We’ve gotten almost no information from him about his classes (except that he doesn’t like his honors seminar), grades, or friends. I think what’s hardest is that in HS (and earlier) he always wanted to talk to us about what happened at school and whatever else was going on.
It’s weird too because we’re so used to giving him advice/reminding him about things/admonishing him for missed to-dos, etc…Now there is no insight.
My ILs are going to be paying him a visit at the end of the month, then he’ll be home for a long weekend. I’m hoping that will shake things loose and that he’ll be more conversant the 2nd half of the semester. I find I miss him more when we don’t hear from him, and that even a brief text is better than nothing.
We’re debating going to Parent’s Weekend as he’ll have just been home; if we asks that we come we’ll go. If we do I just hope we don’t get the same brush off we got during orientation week.
Truth is, life at home is relatively boring (he can pretty much guess what’s going on here…).I’m sure he has plenty of exciting/new things to share (and he isn’t )
We just tell ourselves no news is good news…right??
I seem to be getting one or two texts a day, as does my husband. My D18 says she and D16 have a snap chat streak going. There appears to be contact across the board. I think she misses being part of our daily life as much as we miss her being here, but I don’t get the feeling, yet, that there is a homesick issue and am hoping that these brief contact points are helping her to adjust.
That’s my impression with DS16 as well @labegg. He makes frequent contact , not because he’s lonely or homesick , but just to remain a part of our lives back home.
@dbjs70 Do we have the same S16?? Texts are not always answered and when they are, it’s usually a one word response. I did finally get a picture this week. He seems fine/normal when we have our weekly phone call so I’m not sure if the short or lack of text response is due to laziness or what. I figured most teens prefer texting as it’s less intrusive than talking.
He was never a big texter before and he’s only had an iPhone since June, but surely his new friends (mostly girls) must be texting him. I sent a text asking if he’d rather get a call instead of a text when I had a quick question. Crickets.
I figure out how to get D to call - by ignoring her texts (not on purpose). She had some questions about laundry that she needed a quick answer to and I had left my phone in the other room. After three texts went unanswered, she actually called. It was nice to hear her voice.
@eh1234 Hope your D feels better soon. How great that her friends are taking care of her. My D had mono the fall of her junior year and she was sick throughout the entire semester. She dropped a dance class but kept all of her academic classes. It really took the entire semester before she was well.
DS is on a mostly-incommunicado service trip but emailed this morning, “don’t worry I had a kosher turkey sandwich”.
Well today was a raining day so my annual fitness assessment is on for tomorrow. A little more time to recoup [-O<
Our sweet girl loves all of her classes because they all build on her strengths. While she did well in her high school IB chemistry, biology, physics and calculus classes, her strengths are international affairs, history, debate, political science, English and the arts.
Her major is international affairs, with a concentration in international environmental studies and a minor in political science. In HS she really didn’t like physics at all but got 7’s across the board…loved biology and got 6’s-5’s. The international environmental studies component of her major requires honors biology so she’s ecstatic!
She had 4 callbacks for the school theater company. After singing, reading and an impromptu choreographed dance piece she was chosen for one play and one musical scene. The theater company does not do full plays or musicals. It chooses certain scenes from musicals/plays. I was so bummed when she said that the production will happen a few weeks before parents weekend :((
She’s also joined the GW Democrats, is going through the GW Panhellenic interest process and has submitted her updated resume for her Comparative Politics class mini internship job application. She is in her element and I’m jealous ;
…Now if she can just remember to pickup the dry cleaning we sent her a few days ago (our car was so packed we just couldn’t get it in) ;
It’s great when you get confirmation that your child landed at exactly the place that they were meant to be.
Today’s call was about hives-D has broken out apparently in reaction to bug bites from sitting outside last night. This happens to my older D at least once every spring or summer-this is the first time for D16 though. Thankfully she is fully stocked with Benedryl and cortisone cream.
She has learned the art of the nap-she usually has one class in the morning and another one or two later in the day-close to dinner time-so she often rests during some of that time. This is the kid who claimed she could NEVER nap-but that’s really the only option when you stay up late.
She’s already looking at summer options-reminded her that she will need some level of income and that the plan some of the local kids have to continue a tutoring program for free won’t be an option. But there’s plenty of time to decide-she has 2 offers for paid internships here already.
The big excitement coming up is that our niece’s in-laws, who are like stand-in grandparents for D, will be in Nashville in a couple of weeks. “MeeMaw” is from TN so they go back to visit when they can. They’ll be visiting with D, taking her to dinner, etc. Then we’ll see her in November. This semester is going by so fast already!
I hope your D feels better! @eh1234 That’s why I call so much. And I love feeling that confirmation @labegg @carolinamom2boys
Big excitement on DS16’s front today. He is required to participate in community outreach as part of the William Aiken Fellows , and he has chosen to work with the literacy program where he will be paired up with an adult to assist in teaching him/her to read . When I asked him how he selected that organization , he told me " I know how much I love to read and how important it is." He said that illiterate adults are often forgotten." How proud am I . He also found out that the winner of the ICAT competition ( the program that he is involved in) is going to present the winning product at the UN next summer . While he knows that the likelihood that he will be the winner is questionable , he is certainly excited about participating . He is also talking to one of the professors regarding research opportunities . He’s also looking into being a campus tour guide. He really is transitioning well.