life imitating art

Some how the boy has found out about minecraft.  We don't have the game ourselves, so he's made up his own version with legos.

And taking a turn on the xylophone at the new park.

The boy ransacked his wardrobe to come up with this outfit to wear while driving his jeep.  Not sure if he knows the implications of camo and tannish grays with the jeep, plus the floppy hat.

June fun (and a little July)

Many many years ago, I saved all the money I made one summer to buy the latest in word processing technology.  It came in useful, as I was in college, for writing papers, before such things as laptops and personal printers were a thing.  Believe it or not, it's still laying around the house.

Sometimes, when it's super cold or super hot outside, we have come out with games of our own.  Recently the boy has become interested in treasure maps, and treasure.  So, I oblige with a drawn map of the living room, complete with x-marks-the-spot treasures of m&ms.  Today, the boy made his own map for me to find toys.

At the bottom, you'll notice two figures: the boy holding his crayon and me, holding my phone.  In the center is the broom.  On the left, is the couch.  It's a guess that on the right is the rocking horse.  Cute, huh?

Look how excited the boy is about the fourth of July!

Happy Birthday, Granddad!

in the garden

The growing season is ramping up.  It's been nice, as it's been something to focus on and foster.  We're growing a few new things this year, including a three-sisters garden with corn (never grown that before) pole beans (never been super successful), and squash.  In fact, last fall, my brother gave me a couple pumpkins to compost.  We'd put them in the large compost bin we put on the big garden bed.  So now I have two volunteer pumpkin plants growing.  Fun!!

The weather has been hot, but mostly right in the ideal zone for growing plants.  And something else fun: a potato plant that had also volunteered grew a flower!  I've never seen a potato flower before.  Granted this is only my second year growing potatoes, but apparently it's pretty rare for potato fruit to form, and just as well, as they're poisonous.

"Last Day" of preschool

Actually, it was Tuesday, but I got around to taking the pic on Wednesday.  After months of online school, it doesn't really matter.  He's in the middle of saying "Happy Birthday", so obviously he has no idea what is going on.  Monday, we went to his old school with gifts we'd made for his team of 8 teachers and support staff.  We also picked up some of his stuff from the classroom.  It broke my heart a little when he asked his main teacher for a hug and she had to say no.  "Next week?"  he suggested.  But of course, there is no next week.  There may not be a next year.

It's on a day like this that I get so angry and frustrated by the belligerent incompetence of the federal administration.  A lot of stress and heart-break could have been avoided if someone competent was in charge during this national crisis. I've been struggling for months trying to decide if private pre-kindergarten was better than going straight to kindergarten.  If finding a private speech therapist would even be possible.  And now, no one knows what school will look like next year.  If the inevitable resurgence of this virus will mean that the boy will spend the whole year with next to no contact with children that he needs.  See, now I'm getting mad again.  

Evening walk

We're stuck in the house most of the time, the boy and me.  Husband has had to work 6 days a week for the past month, which has been tough.  So many other families stuck at home, ordering supplies online, because of this mishandled epidemic, means we spend that much less time together.  But Sundays, we get to spend together.  After trying to ride his bike around the block, the boy insisted we carry the bike for him while he pretended to fly like a super hero.

Physics for preschoolers

I bought an inflatable punching bag a while ago, so the boy could take out some of his need to push/punch/wrestle onto something.  It didn't work out quite as intended.  But today he figured out Newtown's 3rd law: every action has an equal and opposite reaction.