My Boys

Some of you may have heard me talk about "my boys" every once in awhile, others may be completely confused by this statement. But the fact is that I have two little buddies who I once and always will refer to as "my boys", Camren and Cooper Santos. They are so dear to me and have been their whole lives.

I've known Camren since he was only a few months old and Cooper his whole life. Their mother, Loren, was the guidance counselor at the elementary school my mom worked at and I met her soon after my mom began working there. Soon after meeting her I got to meet her beautiful baby boy, Camren, and he's had me wrapped around his finger ever since. Two years later when Cooper came on the scene, he did the same and changed it from "My Cam" to "My boys".

I babysat the boys a little during the summers I was home for college but it wasn't until the year after I graduated that I really got to know them. When I chose to come home and serve in AmeriCorps in Frederick, I worked out a deal with Loren to live with her family part time and exchange babysitting for rent. Her husband, Kevin, is a TV sports cameraman for FOX so he travels a lot filming games nationwide, so she was happy to have extra hands around the house. For me it was perfect and cut my 45 mile each way commute in half, plus "watching" the boys was more like just playing with them than work. It was an ideal situation, and that's really when the "my boys" label was solidified.

I lived for the boys that year. I loved coming home to play with them and pick them up from school. They were such a great age (Coop was 2, Cam was 4) and so much fun. I got to see Cooper grow from going everywhere with his pacifier and blanket, to being liberated and adventurous. Camren gave me serenades of all the latest Disney songs, regardless of if he knew the words or not. It was a great year, but moving away and leaving them was really hard.

Over the past two years I've kept in touch as much as I could. I send them letters and cards, and sometimes goodies. I've always remembered holidays and with the exception of Cam's birthday this past March, sent birthday gifts. I keep pictures of them and that they've drawn in my office, something which caused people at Meredith College to think they were my children, and pictures on my phone. I've also seen them every chance I've had, including my visit today.

Today I made the half hour journey up to their house to suprise the boys. Loren knew I was coming, but neither Cam or Coop did. Camren (now 7 years old) had just got home from school (first grade---ah!) and Cooper (now about to turn 5 in a week) came a little later from a friend's house. It was so good to see them! Such sweet boys, and they actually missed me too. I would have figured they didn't care as much, but they did. In fact that leads me to the whole reason for this post, the gift Camren gave to me. Camren had an assignment in class to write a book to someone who has taken care of them, most kids chose mom or dad, Camren, without prompting, chose me. It's so sweet, and reading through it, I admit that I did have some tears. I miss those boys so much!

Here's some of what he said (some of it was a prompt, and keep in mind that he just turned 7):
"You youst to take such good care of me... You youst to put me on the bus. My favrit put of scool is math because I like ekwashins... You know the healthy foods I like best are graps, strapery, takose, pesa, stake, cicin, olavus."

So it may not translate well, but it also came with a hand written card telling me that he missed me and asking me to come visit (little did he know). He's such a little man now and I wish I could see him more. Cam was also telling me how he wished I would stop moving and that I should buy the house next to them so I could play all the time.

Ugh, wish I could Cam, wish I could.

Oh, in case you were wondering, here are the boys:

Camren

Cooper