May 22 A very full day

Wednesday:  Today was Cal's last day at GymCo preschool! He has had a very good year there, met lots of friends, and grown in his socialization skills! He has had super nice teachers too. 

This is the outside "yard" where the kids play when the weather permits. It's really cute to watch how the kids hang out in little friend groups and invent games to play with each other. There is a lot of running and kicking of balls, blowing bubbles, and playing "house" with each other.

Here is Cal, running to greet me! He is always, always, ALWAYS happy to see me. How nice is that?!

 We listen to beautiful music in my car as we drive over to my place. Cal has learned many of these songs and sings along with the music. He has a good grasp of rhythm and notes in general and really likes to sing. I love to hear him sing, "Jesus Strong and Kind." This is one of Kaity's favorites too.

Cal had been sitting very quietly on the window bench watching the birds ... I was in the kitchen and noticed his quietness and reached for my camera (because it was such a precious sight); but before I could snap the picture, he was on the move--so I missed the moment, at least on film--however, I can still see him in my mind's eye just quietly watching the birds. Cal can be a very serious little individual, and I find that he is interested in a lot of things that other children are not--like the names of birds, etc.

Cal wanted Sunny to see the birds, so he ran to the playroom to retrieve him. He loves this puppet.

Doesn't he look like a natural puppeteer with Sunny?

I've been having a lot of hip pain--which is nothing NEW, but it hurts more than I've experienced before; so find it difficult to keep up with this little guy sometimes. I decided PlayDoh would be a good sit-down activity; Cal really gets into PlayDoh. We combined our army guys with our playtime at the table ...

Cal thought it was cool that he could "bury" the army guys in the PlayDoh and then they could HIDE there and jump out when he was ready for war.

Meanwhile, I created some space alien PlayDoh creatures to join in on the battle ...

See how intense Cal is? He has an agenda, even when he is playing with PlayDoh!

Cal took his usual nap in my car on the drive to his house. I met the kids as they were getting off their bus and then we played in their house for awhile. Cal requested that I bring my rubber pig (Hammy) over to meet HIS rubber pig (Honkey) today, so some of the following pictures involve the pigs.

Cal was quite pleased to bring Hammy over to his very own house to get acquainted with all of his toys, etc. When you squeeze the middle of Hammy, he makes a snorting piggish kind of sound, which is very amusing (if you like that sort of thing).

THEIR rubber pig (Honkey) kind of makes a "honking" sound when he is squeezed; hence his name. He is a Polynesian kind of pig (notice the fancy Hawaiian kind of leia around his neck, his sunglasses, and he also has a funny pair of swimming trunks on his body). Erin is showing me the sounds Honkey makes when squeezed.

I kept calling their pig by various weird names because I was being goofy ... Erin was trying to mimic the sounds her pig could make ...

Cal was busy comparing the two pigs and decided that Hammy was a "rainbow" pig. We discovered that Honkey has no tail! How preposterous for a pig to have NO curly tail. We decided it was hiding in his swimming trunks.

Dylan has been at a work conference (out of town) since Sunday, so it's just been Kelly and the kiddos. Kelly brought home a roasted chicken and all sorts of other good food from Costco--we had a very enjoyable dinner together.

Brendan had a school concert tonight over at the Fine Arts Center. Kelly got Brendan there to the center early, and then I brought the other kids later. We had a little bit of difficulty finding Kelly inside the auditorium because it was so dark in there and there are so many levels of seating.

Brendan plays the clarinet with the fifth/sixth grade band. We somehow confused the timing of his group playing and missed it altogether! Brendan did not at all seem bothered by this, so that was okay.

I love you, Brendan! I'll come another time to hear you play.

I got back to my house at nearly 8PM completely happy but quite exhausted from our day. Life is good.