December 13 Happiness

Wednesday:  Another Wednesday has come and gone! The weeks go by so quickly, I can hardly keep track of them. I sure enjoyed my time with this little guy today.

I'm so glad Cal likes to play with the nativity set. He is most likely the last little one to enjoy it--it really is for little kids to play with. They can touch, move, pretend, etc.--all without fear of anything breaking. Perfect.

I always add a few of our farm animals to the scene. It makes it more fun if there is a cat, dog and a few chickens to play with too.

Cal thought it would be a good idea if Paco the Pig came to see the baby Jesus ... so Cal brought him over to take a look ...

Isn't he the sweetest?

Cal really likes this little bird my dad carved years ago. I'm pretty sure the bird is a cardinal (based on its very RED color--but it appears to be a juvenile cardinal at best). 

We played quite a long time with cars and trucks (always a favorite).

Cal had fallen asleep on the way to my house today, so he was still a little bit sleepy. He likes to cuddle with baby James and some of my stuffed animals too, covered up with a dinosaur receiving blanket--what could be more cozy? He also loves this little lantern.

You should hear Cal as he plays--lots and lots of sound effects. He's really got quite an active imagination. He reminds me so much of Brendan at this age (minus the rather strong will this little guy has) ...

Cal stayed awake on the drive over to his house. While we waited for the bus to bring Erin and Aidan home, Cal jumped into the front seat of my car and pretended to drive. He was 100% happy doing this and pressed every single button, activated every switch, and generally moderated every setting on my dashboard ... but no worries ... the key was NOT in the ignition!

I had a nice time coloring with Erin this afternoon. She's very mellow when she gets out of school. She is liking more and more art stuff--so that's a real "win" for me. I failed to take any pictures of her doing her art. She drew a very impressive water scene with waves and colored them so interestingly. I helped her draw a dolphin leaping out of the waves. She was super pleased.

I interacted briefly with Aidan and Brendan. They were in the basement playing a game. I love these guys so much. My "tickle bug" came out and chased them around for a few minutes with them cracking up. I had to banish it (the tickle bug) to my pocket because it just would NOT behave ...
 

December 7 Christmas show (cont.)

Thursday Evening (cont.):  This was my favorite number: "Frosty the Snowman". Kaity did such a great job with her dancing and her pretty smiling face. She really got "into" this.

Doesn't she look great in that hat and sunglasses? And check out her facial expressions. She kills me.

Can you spot Kaity dressed as a sparkling angel?

There she is--right in the back (center). Good job, Kaity! This routine was done to "One Song for All of us".

One extra nice thing about the concert was that Kaity invited her dear Ayden and his grandparents (Lyle and Debi) to come. The grandparents DID come. They sad Ayden isn't ready yet to be out and about with friends--his heart is very sad and he needs to continue to process the loss of his dear mom. How super nice of Lyle and Debi to come to Kaity's Christmas program!

 

December 7 Fifth Grade Christmas Show

Thursday Evening:  After a bit of a mix-up as to what time Kaity had to be at school for the performance and the actual TIME of the performance, everything turned out A-OK. Kaity arrived on-time at 5:30, and both Kenzie and Harper came along for the performance. We saved a seat for Jesse, and he arrived on time too! I took a bunch of pictures of the show, so here goes:

"I Need a Christmas Vacation" is a play about kids getting snowed in AT SCHOOL and missing their Christmas break at home with family and presents. Also introduced to the story is "Whoville" and "the Grinch"--which is where the whole snow storm comes from because ... we all know that the Grinch HATES Christmas ...

Kaity was pretty excited about doing the show. She did express that she was quite nervous about it, but I knew she would do just fine--and she DID.

She sang enthusiastically and knew all of the lyrics.

Mrs. Stein's class played keyboards to "Jingle Bells."

Kaity practiced for this (a little bit) at my house on my piano!

Here is Kaity doing the one speaking part she had: "Let's GO!" Except I missed a photo of when she was actually at the microphone.

This was quite a production! There were costume changes, tons of songs, quite a few solos (well done, too!) and a lot of cool dancing too.

More pictures on next post ...
 

December 6 With Cal, etc.

Wednesday:  I picked up Cal at noon today from pre-school. The kids were outside in their "yard" playing. Usually Cal sees me right away and comes running; but today, he was very involved with his friends and didn't notice me until I was right up to the gate!

We came over to my house and spent a very nice three hours together.

Dear Cal plays really well here. He does a lot of playing independently; but he really likes to interact and have a buddy (me) play closely beside him too. 

He's dear face ...

He really likes to play back in the "spare" room, but prefers the door closed because the heater is too loud (it's right in the hallway).

I probably have close to 200 Matchbox/Hot Wheels vehicles here, there, and everywhere. Cal loves these little cars so much.

He especially loves pretending to wash them and gas them up at the garage.

I got a few new cans of PlayDoh last week--nice, soft, fresh PlayDoh. Cal really enjoys molding and shaping it ... he will play for a solid 20 minutes with it. I was able to accomplish a few kitchen tasks while he played ...

Cal ate his usual Mac 'n cheese, cantaloupe and snacks today. He's a very good eater and hardly fussy about anything. Super easy.

Cal fell asleep almost immediately once he was seat belted into his car seat and had consumed his fruit snack pack. We got back to his house, got Erin off her bus, and then Dylan drove up with Aidan in two. For the next little bit, Erin and I did some art stuff ...

Erin has gotten better and better with her drawing. What I like so much is how much enjoyment she gets from creating. It's such a godly thing ... to create ... and it's so kind of Him to gift us with the ability to make little things out of our heads, isn't it? 

No pictures today of either Aidan or Brendan. Rats. I did visit with them awhile this afternoon too--but they were in the basement most of the time. It's hard to be in two places at once. I'll try to do better next week.

 

December 4 Sadness

Monday:  Last week was kind of a long one. I was sick for most of it--so that wasn't fun. I had to cancel Cal on Wednesday. AND I had to cancel Kaity on Thursday. The stomach flu I had from Sunday through late Tuesday somehow triggered a rather serious episode of reflux (which I didn't realize at the time because I thought it was just my stomach flu worsening)--but once I identified the problem and got back on medication for the reflux, I was able to eat again and feel much better.

In the middle of all of this, though, Jesse phoned me late Thursday with sad news. It was concerning our new friend, Ayden. His mom suddenly died on Wednesday afternoon. She was only 35 and had not been sick. There is a family history of heart defects, but she had not had any outward signs of a problem until Wednesday when a blood clot went to her heart and killed her.

Our friend, Ayden, is an only child. He and Kaity have gotten to be very good friends. Kaity was devastated by the news and was very concerned for Ayden. When I saw Kaity Saturday afternoon for a few hours, we talked a lot about Ayden's loss. We decided to attend the visitation for his mom on Sunday, which we did. Diana brought Kaity and stayed to pay her respects as well. Diana had met Ayden's mom once (I think) and had other phone conversations with her. Kaity and I had never met her; but we have met Ayden's grandpa Lyle (his mom's father) on several occasions. We are sad for this whole family.

When we visited with Ayden at the funeral home yesterday, he was so heartbroken. He would walk to his mom's casket, put his face in his hands and just sob. We asked him to take us around to all of the pictures of his mom that were on poster boards and displays and tell us about her. Ayden was very glad to do this--and smiled and laughed at some of the memories.

Kaity and I went to the funeral today. I picked Kaity up from school and brought her back afterwards. It was hard to be there, but Kaity really wanted to be there for Ayden. We really did not get to spend any time with him today--he was one of the pall bearers and was closely surrounded by a lot of family during the funeral service. I returned a very sad Kaity to school by about 12:30 this afternoon.

"Oh, Lord, please be very near to Ayden, his dad, his grandparents, his aunt and cousins as they process this loss. Please pour out your mercy on this family."