The weekend actually began on Friday.  First we went to the doctor's office where Aidan got not one, not two, but three shots.  Reaction and fever didn't set in until later that night, so he was able to play with the kids at daycare where we went for his last pizza day--they have them once a month--and showed up just in time for some sprinkler fun.

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We also stopped in at my sister's bakery, where she and my niece were busily preparing for Saturday's sales.
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Then later in the evening we met PB, RB, and MB at the park in town.
On Friday night and Saturday, Aidan was pretty sick from his shots-feverish and tired-so we laid low, but on Saturday afternoon we went to visit my mother and were just in time for a pretty powerful and short-lived thunderstorm.  We sat with her out on the porch and listened to the thunder, lightning, and windchimes.  Aidan loved it.  He has asked at least a dozen times since when we could hang windchimes on our porch (I think I got some from a brother for Christmas, but the porch wasn't built until last year and the ceiling still isn't finished, so I haven't hung them yet).
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Mom turned 81 on Sunday.  She stopped hiking the mountain for her birthday two summers ago, which is how Aidan and I got her to ourselves on Saturday afternoon (a very rare and special treat), but on Sunday all of the hikers were gathered at the house and at the bog to play, so we joined them for a while.
Then in the evening we joined GB and JC for a cookout using the new grill she got at last weekend's bridal shower.  BB is walking now, and he is curious about everything!
When we got home, to yet more rain, Aidan and I sat on the porch and talked about windchimes, and "camping" out on the porch sometime when it is raining.  The fact that he had a sleeping bag was news to him, so of course he had to see it right away, and he then spread it out on the t.v. room floor to watch Iron Man.
 

Today was my last day of school until late August.  So that means it was Aidan's last day at daycare until I go back to work, and he has been told that he will start kindergarten in the fall.  Several times this week he has asked me if I will miss him when he goes to his new school.  I have told him that Daddy will take him to school and that he will probably be on a schoolbus at the end of the day, but that Mommy would pick him up after she gets done work.  I think the whole transition and related conversations have unleashed yet more memories of his transitions in China.

Here is tonight's bathtime conversation.  He wanted to know if I missed him when he was at his "new house" and if Sissy (LB) and I cried when he was there.  I said yes, we were sad because we didn't know when he would ever be able to come on the plane to our house with us.  He said he didn't come on a plane.  He went by bus from his new house to another house.  He took some of his Mom's money and spent it at a store on toys and food, but only enough for lunch.  There was a big girl on the bus but she wasn't like Sissy and wasn't one of the kids.  He says he was one of the younger kids, that not all of the seats were full, and that he cried because he was scared.  He said some of the other kids cried too.  He says that he waited at the other house for us.

Needless to say, we will be spending a lot of time at his kindergarten this summer (it's about half a mile from our house), even if it just means playing on the playground so that he knows it is a place he goes to and then returns home from.

A day at the beach with LB & friends-still far too cold to swim, but warm enough to wade and play on the sand

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The "new house" is obviously the foster home he lived in.  When G asked about seeing his new house, Aidan said no, duh, we would have to get on a plane to do that.

Other "new house" memories that have come out in the last couple of weeks are that the bathroom was outside and it was dark there.  He said there was no door but he gets confused when he talks about that, so maybe there was a curtain or something.  There was no bathtub like at our house.  When I asked about a wash basin, he had to think about it and said there wasn't one.  (Often wash basins are not with the toilet in China, so that wasn't a surprise) 

He slept in a room by himself with the lights off.  Another kid is now sleeping in his bed.

He rode a bike without training wheels there.  He really wants his Daddy to make his bike just two wheels like that one, though he says his Diego bike is much nicer than the one he had in China.  He would ride the bike on the road.  There were other boys to play with-once he said two, once he said five.  He had a girlfriend down the road who he played with. 
 

Our first son, GB, is getting married in September, so yesterday was JC's bridal shower.  Unlike the average bride-to-be, all she wanted was appliances for the house.  She got everything from a waffle iron to a washing machine.

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Here she is wearing her "hat" of gift ribbons.

Here are the boys, enjoying the big lawn.
 

It only rained for about half of the day today, and we will see one other day this week without the wet stuff.  The best part about weather like this, though, is how much everything grows and glows when the sun comes out!

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What a great day, from start to finish!  I got two hugs from graduating seniors in my AP macroeconomics class.  We started watching F.I.S.T. in economics class (now I can get some year-end averaging started).  We entered the 1990s in US history class. 

All the way home, Aidan went on and on about his basketball hoop.  GB gave this hoop to him yesterday and he has talked of nothing else since.  So as soon as we got home G had to fill the base with water.  Next the hoop has to be lowered so that Aidan can actually shoot at it, but right now he doesn't care how high it is.

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As if that isn't enough, I've also got some great blooms outside the house.  I'm one of those growers who weeds occasionally, is afraid to move anything in case I should kill it, and loves nothing more than to watch the bees and hummingbirds and butterflies enjoying what I grow.  I'm also one of those people who goes outside every single day and checks out the plants-they really do grow overnight!  So here are some pics from today (chives, roses, and clematis).
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