Mud Baths

Henry and I began our Monday morning completing a 1000 piece puzzle.  He is my puzzle buddy and he is very much an equal partner.  We had a lot of fun doing it over the previous week.  I was all ready to go get another big puzzle when Henry said, "That was too much.  I don't want to do another 1000 piece one again."  Oh...I was a bit sad on the inside.  We'll have to stick to our Dollar Store puzzles then.

The boys had math tests again this week.  Henry aced his.  Josiah missed the "Place this story in order." problem.  I sort of felt bad for him because the story sentences were about washing a dress and ironing it.  He thought you ironed a dress and then washed and dried it.  The only thing he sees me iron anymore are Awana patches on their uniforms.  Tough break.

CC went well again this week.  It was an agonizing decision last year to determine whether we should stay with the group that we were with last year or go back to our old original group.  And yet, here we are at week 2 and it is so obvious that our old original group was the way to go.  The boys are really happy to be back with friends.  They interact with all the kids really well.  Caroline is still adjusting because she's in a classroom now, but that'd be the case in both groups.  I did get the opportunity to speak with Josiah's tutor after lunch.  I asked how he was doing in class and if he was behaving himself.  She told me that he is doing well and that, yes, he does talk a lot, but he will also take direction and stop when she asks him to, so it's not problematic. How we got such talkative kids is beyond us!

After we got home from CC, the kids wanted to run in the sprinkler.  They were out back for quite a while with it.  After Caroline came in, I was busy getting her in the tub.  Once she was all settled in, I looked back out and this is what I saw:

That would be Henry painting mud on Josiah.  It didn't get too crazy, so I didn't interrupt their spa treatments.  I will note, however, that even after the boys came in and showered,  Henry still came out with mud all over the side of his face.  Did you miss your face in the bath, son?

One of our friends from karate mentioned that she had talked to her 8-year old son about girls the other day (he brought them up kind of a talk).  I thought it would be years before we had the same sort of conversation...and then Wednesday arrived.  We started back at our church activities and on the drive home, Josiah mentioned that a girl named "G-" was in his class.  Then he proceeded to say, "I've admired her for a long time.  She's read all the Ramona books.  I love her."  Okay.  And there we are.  I guess we've entered a new phase.

Awana began this week and we were all excited about it.  When it came time to drop the kids off in their particular classes, we decided to drop off Josiah first.  He kept telling me in a hushed voice, "Let's drop Henry off first, then Caroline, then me."  He was constantly reiterating that he wanted to be dropped off last, but since I was working in Henry's room, it didn't make sense.  Then when we dropped him off (first, to his horror), I saw his face and he was absolutely petrified.  I seriously don't think I've ever seen him so scared before.  He's moved up a level in Awana, so he's in T 'n T (Truth in Training) which has 3rd-6th graders in it.  In the room, I tried to point out all the boys he knew from Sparks, as well as his Sparks leader who moved up with the boys.  But Josiah just looked up at me, wide-eyed, and said, "I need you to stay with me."  I felt so horrible for leaving him, although I knew he'd have a good time.  He's never really shown fear going into a classroom before.  He's typically our gung-ho kind of a kid.  At the end of the night, he was all smiles and said he had the best time he's ever had at Awana.

And Henry and I finally got our Chick-fil-a time this weekend.  He ate a full meal and then an ice cream (we had a lot of coupons to use).  In these outings with the kids I have tried to be mindful to not rush them.  So, it was funny to watch Henry savor every lick of his ice cream.  We sat and ate for almost an hour.  We witnessed two lunch rushes come and go, but we were still going strong with our leisurely meal.


Caroline came home from church today and promptly went upstairs after lunch and put herself down for a nap.  She is currently up with me commenting on the lack of pictures of her in the blog this week.  So, we remedied that.  She's a beauty.