Monday, August 13: Beginning week three of my retirement! August has been a busy month so far, mainly because the children are on summer break and I want to take advantage of their available time as much as I can before school starts back.
Mondays belong to Brendan and Aidan. We drove to Meijer Gardens this morning to soak in the beauty. Brendan loves it out here. Wee Aidan super enjoys it too.
We took the long pathway out to the little "farm" ... there ARE no animals ("ant-imals" as Brendan pronounces it) out there, just sculpted ones but it is a nice little hike and it is just beautiful there.
See? Baby Aidan watched with much interest ...
Brendan is a very hands-on child. When he saw this water pump ... he just HAD to pump it! But that's exactly WHY it is there. Meijer Garden's is a very interactive place.
Brendan delights in cause-and-effect (don't we all?), so it was a little hard to get him away from here once he started!
We finally walked over to the Children's Garden to play with the boats. We met a "grandpa" who was there with his autistic seven-year-old granddaughter. Her name is Lenox, so unusual. The grandpa is a retired teacher and told me all about his granddaughter's extremly premature birth (27 weeks) and the journey they have been through together. He does all he can for Lenox, and she thrives with his love.
There were volunteers at the pool today with plastic toys (I forget the name of this building toy ... my boys used to play with them when they were small) and the children could use them to make bridges (or anything else) to add to the fun. Brendan is a very intense builder, so he was at this for quite awhile.
There were volunteers there today who also had little plastic cars and tiny boats that kind of connected together. Brendan had one in his hand and saw a little boy (perhaps five years old) with two little boats that were connected. Brendan approached to see if he could connect his to the two the other boy had. Brendan was super soft about it--not aggressive or anything--but the boy reacted rather meanly and said: "Get away from me! You can't play with my toys! These are MINE! Go away!" Brendan immediately stopped ... but oh, his little heart was hurting and tears were coming down his face. I gathered him close and we talked and hugged.
Baby Aidan finally tired of his stroller, so I set him free to play. He is very cautious around water--quite opposite of Brendan.
Brendan's little heart was still hurting, so we went to the gift shop on our way out of the Gardens. We picked up a wind-up dancing pig (seriously!) and brought him home to our pig family where he entertained them for awhile.
Baby Aidan slept in the car for a little bit while I fixed lunch, and then we ate and played some more.
We listened to a lot of children's music and played our instruments! It was great fun.
Love these little boys! Such a nice day we had together.
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