Recent pics

May

Aunt Susie and Uncle Ted visited this weekend. Henry was thrilled. We have been moving the magnet on his calendar in his room for the past two weeks, every day closer and closer to “Aunt Susie Day” and when the day of their arrival came last Thursday, Henry woke up at 4:30 in the morning to ask if he could move the magnet to “Aunt Susie Day”. He did and I am surprised he was able to fall back asleep.
They had a Mother’s Day celebration at Henry’s preschool on Thursday. The kids made apple muffins with smiley faces, daffodils made out of construction paper and those tiny cups that you fill with ketchup at fast food restaurants, and garden stones that they decorated with shiny rocks and tiny shells. When I arrived the kids were playing downstairs. I pulled out my camera and took a photo of the spread on the table-muffins, apples, carrots, celery, handmade flowers and fresh flowers. The schoolhouse is really only 2 rooms. The upstairs room is full of light; windows cover 3 of the 4 walls. I moved into a sunny spot and waited for the kids. I love this school. After a minute or two, I heard the kids stomping up the steps. They ran into the room, stood on the circle rug and were led by the teachers in a messy and slightly distracted version of “You are my Sunshine”. After that it was time for snack. Henry and I sat inside and talked, mostly about Aunt Susie’s visit. She was going to pick him up from school and Henry was excited. Once we finished our snacks we headed outside to play for a while. Henry played in the sand with two other truck and sand loving boys. The boys played pretty well together until another kid came around and started dumping the truck every time that Henry would fill it up. This was not the game that he had been playing and I think it bothered Henry that this boy was dumping his sand but he didn’t cry or scream or grab the truck, he just said “No Max, I want to fill it all the way up. Please don’t dump it.” And when Max continued to dump it Henry looked at me, rolled his eyes, raised up his shoulders and smiled an “Oh well” smile. We moved on to the slide and had a great time. I was proud of him for handling it so well. For a kid that has very little experience playing with other kids he was very patient and easy going about Max’s behavior. And he moved on easily when it wasn’t working. (Although he mentioned last night that Max is very naughty and shouldn’t be allowed to go to school, so it obviously stuck with him a little bit.) Henry tells me almost every morning on the way to school “Going to school is going to be sad because I will miss you and I don’t know how to play with the other kids.” When I drop him off he mostly just hangs around the teachers. I am not sure what to do to get him to interact more with the other kids. He seems to do well with 4 and 5 year olds but he cannot move to the 4-5 year old class until next year. I hope we can find a friend for him soon, I think that it will make all the difference.

Aunt Susie and Uncle Ted arrived to pick Henry up from school about a half an hour later. Henry was so funny. He covered his mouth, jumped up and down, stomped his feet and did not make a sound. I haven’t seen him that excited to see someone. She beat Santa and the Easter Bunny. Aunt Susie is very special to Henry. They became very close when she lived with my parents while her hubby was in Iraq. She moved to Rhode Island in January and Henry has been missing her ever since. We spent a lot of time over the weekend with Aunt Susie….and Henry didn’t really want anything to do with anyone else. This morning he told me “I wish Aunt Susie could stay at Gigi and Grandpa’s house again for days and days and days.” I agree. We all miss her.

On Saturday we all met up at Henry’s school for the Family Fun Walk- 5/10K Benefit Run. It was what I like to describe as “Co-op crazy”—all the makings of an official event but with the chaos of a family reunion. We basically waited an hour to walk around the block with about 100 other families, ate some pancakes and watched the kids play. They had live music and the weather was perfect. My favorite part of the day was pushing Henry on the tire swing. He leaned back and closed his eyes. I remember doing that exact same thing as a kid. I told Wade that we need to put in a tire swing at our house. One that is sturdy enough for both kids and grownups :) Henry picked out an enormous yellow t-shirt at the run and he has worn it almost every day since.
We have a lot coming up in the next few weeks. A vacation. A wedding. Summer school. I’ll try to do a better job of blogging.

Happy Mother's Day