October 11 Tuesday's Children

Tuesday:  Briefly, this was the order of our day--I left here at 10:30, picked up Cal shortly before 11, arrived at Erin's pre-school by 11:30, arrived here at my house by noon, Cal fell asleep in the car so I cracked open the windows and let him sleep for an hour, Erin and I played inside and ate our lunch, I woke Cal up by 1:00 and brought him inside, he played trains and cars and ate his lunch, and by 3:00 we were on our way to pick Aidan up from school, got home to their house in time to meet Brendan from his bus, and then played at their house until Dylan and Kelly got home from work, ate dinner, played some more, and tonight I was home by 7pm! 

I only took a very few pictures today, all of them at my house: Here is Erin finishing up her chocolate milk. She is a very dramatic little girl and was telling me something important (which I cannot remember), but ... she is SO expressive and uses her whole body when she talks.

I made a train layout for the kiddos earlier this morning and they had a good time playing with it. My two battery-operated engines are now repaired (thank-you, Terry, for figuring out how to replace the batteries in "Big Red") and working really well, so that added to their playtime.

Cal is pointing out to me that one of our engines is stuck and got off track ... it stresses him out when this happens--look at his concerned little face.

Cal is a really good eater! He ate a nice helping of Mac 'n cheese, quite a few grapes, some watermelon, and then some snacks too.

Erin suggested we all go fishing for awhile, so I got out that cute fishing set Emma bought for my birthday. We made small lakes and buckets from our little stools, which kept Cal and Erin in two different locations thus NOT tangling their fishing lines ...

Cal is in love with our Belle-Belle. He calls her "kee-ca" and now understands that her name is Belle and has altered his use of her name to "kee-ca Belle-Belle". 

Cal gets super excited when he sees Belle and will chase her everywhere. She puts up with so much from this little boy! 

Finally, Cal thought it would be appropriate to get all cuddled up on my bed and take a nap with Belle (which lasted all of two seconds), but it was super cute to set up anyway.

It sure was nice to spend time with Brendan after he arrived home from school today. He had a difficult homework assignment (at least I thought it was difficult) in that he had to write a story. He had to first "brainstorm" his ideas and write them down, then he had to write a "rough draft" which would be submitted for editing to one of his parents, and then he would write the final draft. The teacher's guideline for the story was this: Your parents have left you for a few hours and have told you to clean your bedroom. When they come home, they find that you have not done what they told you to do! You tell them it is because THIS happened (this is where the fictional story comes in). They were instructed to use at least TWO hyperboles in their story. I had to ask Brendan to tell me what the word hyperbole meant because I had completely forgotten the definition. Without hesitation, he readily supplied it as "a huge exaggeration" of facts. Ah. 

While Brendan was working on his fictional account, I took the other kiddos to the basement where we played and rough-housed for awhile until ... I discovered that Aidan would need a bath in order to resolve what had gotten him less than clean. So we did that! Kelly told me that Aidan likes Kindergarten, except on Tuesdays he tells her that he misses going to my house to play. I miss you too, Aidan! SO much. I miss cracking up with you and watching you create and enjoy yourself at play.

Erin was especially cuddly all throughout the day. I love snuggling up with her. She is just the sweetest. And Cal too--I had such a nice time with all of these children today. I am so thankful for them. It was also nice to visit a bit with Dylan and Kelly. I was relating the story of my crazy time in the woods the other day (where I fell 30' down a gorge)--Brendan and Aidan were listening too--they were quite an audience. Kelly is always so kind and sympathetic--and I love to hear her laugh. Mmmm. And Dylan's smile is enough to light up my heart too. Thank you, Lord, for all of these wonderful folk you have put in my life.