Yep, so Xavier graduated from kindergarten a year ago. This was his last day walking to the bus stop. I loved the view from this house and wish we could have stayed forever.
Ms. Jenny (Brown) was a wonderful teacher for X and I'm so glad she let me help out in the class as often as I needed to so I could stay connected to him. Jenny and I had worked together as AmeriCorps volunteers at the same school the year before, so I trusted her and knew she would be great!
Following which, Xavier immediately turned six (mind you, this is from last year, so he looks little!) We did a Wii controller cake with life-size Angry Birds games, a Temple Run maze run through the backyard (we'd left the grass long then cut a maze through it), and a Mr. Freeze game to represent his ultimate favorite game...Lego Batman.
I used so much food coloring to make the cake as black as X wanted that it turned everyone's lips Goth!
"Mr. Freeze" froze all the other Lego Batman characters in a sheet of ice! The boys used squirt guns & warm water to free them.
And then we moved...for the 11th time in 10 years of marriage. This time we moved to the west side of town, moving us into new school and church boundaries. Our first dinner at the "Culligan" apartments with our legless table was thanks to KFC. This neighborhood has built-in friends for the kids to play with, which is a nice change from scheduling and arranging driving for playdates. Little girl climbed on the tree stumps all summer, singing, dancing, and bowing. X and friends (Trent, Ashton, Jovi, Daxton, Caroline, Savannah, and Dominique) were able to ride bikes around the complex and we attempted to teach him how to ride a two-wheeler with a little bit of success.
X got to play T-ball on the Nationals team, and it was so fun watching all the little girls and boys learning to run bases, hit the ball, and of course, watching the pile up as the entire team would race each other to catch grounders.
The coach (Davidson?) did drills like throwing/catching practice before each game. His little boy was on the team, and I think that made him extra supportive of every kid. He never got upset or competitive during games, even when all the kids were constantly asking to be "first." I was grateful.Here's X attempting a catch:
Even though the catcher's mask was hot, X loved this position. Oftentimes, the mask was more distracting to the catcher than paying attention to the game, and the ball would roll by them or lay for quite a while before they would notice (if they noticed...:))
It was a really hot summer, and X got his first case of heat exhaustion after one particularly hot game. The whole team was sluggish in the heat, and, in hindsight, I should have just pulled him into the shade for the last half and made him drink a bunch of water, but I didn't do that long enough, trying to be loyal to the team and coach's efforts, and ended up with a very sick kid that night...clammy skin, vomiting, the works! Unfortunately, once a person has heat exhaustion one time, it is much easier to get it again, so we had to be careful after that. I learned to hydrate kids a few hours BEFORE they go play in the sun for long stretches and to keep them hydrated throughout. I hope to never again forget to fill our waterbottles on the days the team plays on the field with no shade!
Our driveway consisted of one paved block and one "rock pit" that was the magnet for the kids in the complex all summer and fall. Our little girl wanted a full body sensory experience, I guess!
A sad moment near the end of summer... We found a fun playground nearby but after playing for a while, our little girl got two bee stings on her fingers at the same time. End of playtime. She wanted nothing more than to sit like this at home with her hand wrapped to hold the sting relief in place.
She also loves to draw (but only in pen). When I'm not watching, ink has a tendency to end up where it's not supposed to...on walls, bed posts, dolls, pillowcases, and on herself.
