For about a while now I've been without a camera and for even longer a phone with a camera. We kept forgetting to order a new memory card for the camera and finally did - hopefully it will arrive sooner than later. Also, I've been trying to get the new iPhone for a while and it's finally been ordered!!! Woo-hoo! I'll be back to 'modern life' sooner than later and I'll be able to text again! And take and send photos! But I will not be putting fb on the phone so again, if you want to stay in touch you have to do it old school - check in here, text, email or call!!! You know how nice it is to hear your voices?!?! :)
Anyway, so there are a number of things that have happened that I so wish I had a camera with me to capture the moment but didn't ... so I'll describe them here for the boys best I can and maybe when they're older it'll jog their memories.
At their school, they are building an addition - a new cafeteria, a new gym, new classrooms, etc. There is a huge construction site adjacent to their school. The boys walk t h i s s l o w to get into school because they are unable to divert their attention from the crane lifting and placing huge beams or men welding beams together. But, it was the beams that I wanted to capture the other day. The school thought it would be a great idea to offer kids a chance to write their names on one of the beams for the new building. We happened to get there early one day and both boys wrote their names on the beam. James wrote James and I was holding Cillian's hand and he wasn't really into it so we wrote CJS instead of his name. "CJS + James" is what is written on the beam that will be a part of the new gym.
After therapy, when we come home and before we eat lunch, Cillian and I have been taking walks around the block together. And I should say that now - as of today - October 7th - Cillian is like totally walking. Totally walking. But that will be another post - FULL OF PHOTOS of him walking. Ahem. So back to our nature walks. He still had his walker with him for assistance on these walks and I brought baggies with me to collect acorns and their tops, sticks, leaves, etc. Then Cillian picked up an acorn and put it in the bag. Then he would take the bag, look at it, take something out, look at it and then put it back in the bag. So here's why this is a big deal - this is exactly what kids his age should be doing and he's doing it. Like rocking it he's doing it so well. This has been one of my favorite things to do with him. All the other kids are at school, the parents at work or running errands and it's just me and him and the squirrels, chipmunks and birds. He'll stop on the sidewalk and just watch the squirrels chase one another and then he'll giggle. I'll say "squirrely whirrely" and he'll giggle louder and laugh. He loves to spin a leaf stem in his fingers and watch the leaf turn back and forth. He likes to take a stick and break it - but not all the way - so that the top piece hangs and he twists it back and forth to watch it swing. He is very protective of his nature bags because James picked one up when he came home from school and Cillian freaked out and cried until I asked James to give it to Cillian. We all learned a valuable lesson: Don't mess with Cillian's bag of nature.
We had a big storm the other night that dropped a lot of much needed rain. Cillian and I came home from school that day (maybe last Friday?) and I took him inside to take off his sneakers and put his rain boots on. He was so excited "Boo Boo!" he kept saying. He was already in his rain jacket and we went back outside and he walked through puddles all by himself. The smile on this child's face was utterly priceless. I cannot wait for us to do this again - his rain jacket is a little too big for him and the jacket coupled with his boots and his earnest and joyful expression is just one of the best combinations of Cillian. Just a little boy loving to be a little boy.
The leaves. Wow the leaves. Fall came quickly this year. It's cold already. I mean today isn't too bad - upper 50s, lower 60s but we missed the upper 60s time that I just love. I think we had two days of it! However, making up for the chilliness is the beauty of the foliage. Some trees are just stunning. I hope the camera card arrives soon so I can capture some of the colors. The boys and I collected a lot of leaves so far and we've been pressing them for two weeks - we can see them Oct. 9th. I wrote the date on a paper plate on top of our stack of books so we knew when it would be okay to get them.
And finally, yesterday we went on a bike ride when James got home from school. We hadn't been able to do it lately because it's been too cold or drizzley. But yesterday was a sunny crisp fall afternoon and we enjoyed it. On our walk, I knew we needed bread for dinner (I made black bean soup - delish) and I thought it would be fun to send James in on his own while I stood with Cillian and their bikes. He was so excited. He practiced saying, "May I please have a baguette?" This grocery store isn't Publix or Jewel - it's a small family owned gourmet grocer that is around the corner from us. When James walked in by himself, the man looked outside and met my gaze and smiled. Then he helped James pick out a loaf of bread for us. James could have been a peacock walking out of the store he was so proud of himself. I was proud of him too.
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