June 26 The JOY of these four

Wednesday:  Kelly brought these dear grandchildren to ME today! Thank you, Kelly! They arrived at 12:45. We ate our lunch and played, and played, and played. These guys do not need any entertaining. Of course, I have a TON of toys! They know where everything is. They need very little help with anything they want to do around here. I love it when they are at my little house.

The older Cal gets--he has just turned FOUR--I notice that he does better playing with Aidan and Erin. Perhaps it's because he is just as "bright" as they are, and nothing gets past him--I'm not sure, but they all seem to enjoy each other (when they are not "spatting" w/each other). Cal has become a little less possessive of toys, and less anxious when something doesn't immediately go his way. These are good things! Way to go, Cal! In the last few weeks, he has taken to "copying" me--just out of the blue, he will repeat something I've said or a gesture I have made. He does this totally seriously too!! It gives him such delight--which cracks me up. I told him I am going to start calling him "Herbie" if he isn't careful ... [Herbie is our little animated hamster--he is sitting on the shelf just to the right of Cal). Cal told me I was not allowed to call him "Herbie" ... so I reminded him (very seriously) that he is also not allowed to call his grandma, "Dummy". Unacceptable, little man!

We had such a nice few hours together here. The older three kids all love to draw and do art. I love how creative they all are, and I love to watch their JOY as they create. It's very heart-warming to me.

Erin wandered around a little bit, not sure what she wanted to do first ... but she did very well just playing with different toys, very content.

Look at Brendan. My heart! I love this child so much it makes my heart ache--does that make sense? You see, when he was just a "Little Fellow", he and I spent quite a bit of time together. He was completely delightful--interested in every little thing--almost never fussy--very easy to be with. He has grown up so much this year. Sixth grade was a good year for him in public school. He carries himself more confidently, and he seems more happy this year. I'm so glad.

I love the way you sketch, Brendan!

What's that mischievous look on your face, Erin? This little person has a great sense of humor, and is so much fun.

AIDAN ... has a brilliant mind. I say that with caution--truly. For just turning seven in March, he reads at an incredible level of maturity. I bet he reads at a Grade 9 or 10 level. He can read through instructions (ie LEGO) and understand completely and then construct the model without help. He likes to build and see how things work. I love to watch him at play. He is rather intense--but--not unreasonably (most of the time). When he is playing, he has a goal in mind (always), and sees it through until he has achieved whatever he set out to do. It's an admirable quality! I try not to worry about how "smart" he is--it's just that, sometimes very brilliant people do not know how to be happy--there is too much going on in their brains. I have a very average brain--the only thing I struggle with is "melancholy" and sometimes depression--but the Lord is working on me for both of those maladies. I almost never try to figure out deep unanswerable questions--Jesus is enough of an answer for me. I can set all my hope on Him.

Aidan had a lot of success making a cool track with magnet tunnels and hills. He had a very clear picture in his mind of what he wanted this to look like--and he was quite happy with the result. Me too!

The next thing I knew, Aidan had reached high on one of the toy shelves and retrieved the marble run. When I build with this thing, I use the pictured instructions--because I need them. Not Aidan! He just messed around enough with the pieces and figured out how to arrange them so that the marbles would flow in the direction he wanted them in order to go down each designated run he had desired.

Cal sat and watched his brother quite a long time. He had his turn to build a little later--and I did help him make his own marble run.

We watched a little bit of the movie: "Two Brothers". It's about twin tiger cubs and what happened to them when they were captured. We only watched about 30 minutes of it, and then it was time to get everyone to the car and drive over to Costco to pick up our pizza (for dinner).

Dylan and Kelly are both at a conference at Dylan's workplace this evening. My "relief" (in the person of Cassie) arrived at 6:30. The kids hadn't met her before (nor had I)--but we liked her immediately. What a nice person she is! She connected right away with the kids, and I felt confident in leaving them in her care. Dylan and Kelly know a LOT of competent, kind, and truly interesting people. I'm thankful they have such nice friends.

I arrived home at about 7:15 and as I pivoted to get out of my car, something twisted in my hip (!!!) and I could barely put any weight on my left leg the rest of the night. I hauled out mom's walker once again and used it! The pain was so intense I was actually gasping with each step. Thankfully, Thursday morning it had calmed down quite a bit. I am thankful for Physical Therapy and am praying that these sessions and home exercises with resolve this pain.