Maddie's Visit and Getting Ready for Back to School

The poor neglected blog. I need to record some memories from the last couple of weeks before they all leave my brain. I'm sure I've lost a bunch already. Things are good. We've been busy soaking up the last few days of summer staying up too late and having lazy mornings. But that ends tomorrow.

So when I left you last we were visiting Lynchburg. Two of our nieces and one nephew were staying a few weeks with Grandma and Grandpa. They had one more week left in their visit before heading home. Since our house is the half-way meeting point where the grandparents would be bringing them back to their parents, I suggested that Maddie come spend the week with us. She jumped at the chance and we were thrilled to have her.

And what did we do while she was here? We went to the zoo of course.





I think that's a cool photo of Luke and lizard.



It is so obvious how much he adores her. And that's a very large yellow snake behind them. Maybe a python. I've been to the zoo how many times and had never seen this snake down the hallway just past the restrooms in reptile world.

Luke has always been frightened to ride the carousel at the zoo. He's curious, but too scared to try. Maddie wanted to ride and Luke said he would go too. So I bought their tokens but Luke freaked out at the last minute. Maddie didn't want to ride alone and Luke wanted me to stay with him, so Lamar rode with her. I so wish the camera had been with me and not Lamar so I'd have a photo of Lamar on the carousel.

After watching Maddie and Daddy's fabulous time on the carousel Luke was ready to try it. Look at the joy on his face:




I'm so glad he loved it even if the whole ordeal cost me eight dollars.

I took Maddie and Luke to the mall one evening and Maddie introduced Luke the fun of the photo booth. This one only set me back three dollars.




She also taught Luke that you can put money in those little rides at the mall and they move, light up, and do all sorts of cool things. We were at the mall again just the other day and he asked to ride again. Great job Maddie.

On the same trip to the mall with Maddie we discovered the new Wii Sports was now available for purchase. This was a HUGE moment for Luke. Here he is playing it one of the first times:



Pure joy.

Oh and Maddie found a great deal on some moon sand at Target. She's quite the shopper. Here they are with their moon sand creations.

And enjoying some dessert Maddie helped me make. Maddie and I also made some banana bread while she was here. It was the first time I'd tried the recipe and I suppose I seemed less than confident. About half way through the process she said, "Is this the first time you've ever made anything?" Yep, even an eight year old can see my incompetence.

Very typical scene while Maddie was visiting us. It was such a joy watching them play together. At times it made me sad that Luke wasn't born into a family with older siblings, or that we hadn't had another child years ago so he'd have a playmate now. But it was also funny to see how the newness wore off a little towards the end of the week and the bickering began. On the way home from church Wednesday night there was much "discussion" about what they would play when they got home. Finally Luke said in an exacerbated voice, "Maddie, when we get home you play Old McDonald by yourself and I'll play the new Wii Sports by myself!"

Maddie's been gone for over a week now and Luke still brings her up often and asks when we'll see her again. It's a sweet relationship.

This is Luke ready to go to Mimi's house earlier this week. Can you guess what he wanted to do there? He took everyone single Wii Game we own. His eyes look a little tired in the photo huh?

And here he is when we arrived at Mimi's. Still protecting those games, or at least most of them.



And today was open house at preschool. Tomorrow is Luke's first day. Where did the summer go? I just feel like time if slipping by so quickly and I just want to scoop Luke up and not miss a moment. Tonight I prayed I would savor each moment of this last year of preschool, that I wouldn't waste time worrying about things that don't matter, that I would push him when he needs pushing, but that I would let him be himself and be a child this year.

Open house went well. It was a packed house. With the move to the new school this year, I think even all the veteran parents came to check out the new setup. Luke was a little apprehensive about coming into a bustling room of parents and preschoolers, but he warmed up and did great. In the above photo he's busy decorating his take home folder. I'm so impressed with Mrs. Jenny's organized classroom. I'm optimistic this will be a good year.

Luke and his great teacher, Mrs. Jenny. Luke's really into closing his eyes when smiling for pictures. And he was a little nervous, but being brave.

And with his awesome speech therapist, Mrs. Jodie. Again with the closed eyes. Oh well. Mrs. Jodie's been his speech therapist at school since he was three. She excellent and I'm so glad she'll have him again this year. When we decided to move to Mrs. Jenny's room I knew Mrs. Jodie would remain his speech therapist, but I thought he would have a new OT. And I was disappointed that we'd loose Mrs. Sarah who was a super OT and Luke loved her. Today I saw Mrs. Sarah at open house and asked if she'd be in Mrs. Jenny's room. They've made some changes and she will. Yeah! Icing on the cake.

So I pray tomorrow is a good day for Luke. He enjoyed Mrs. Jenny's open house scavenger hunt today, checking off each thing we found in the classroom. He told me when we left he wanted to come back tomorrow. He made a few comments this afternoon that made me think he was rethinking that statement, but I'm optimistic he'll love it when he gets there.