Gentle Years

Our annual family retreat is one of those great times unless you are the planner and money collector-I was both-and get to listen to everyone complain ahead of time and for the next couple of years about what was wrong with the place.

However, here is what was good about it this year:

Watching a hydroplane landing with my fifth brother

On the riverboat cruise with my third brother, to the right, and with my sister's husband, above

Here is Aidan making tracks for the gravel pit, above, and he and my sister's dog trying to scale the hill, below.

Enjoying my sister's hospitality, above, and her daughter in-law (he just adores her), below.

My eternally upbeat and energetic sister (13 months younger than me); my footprints in the sand.

Pretty Baby turned 26 this week and G's sister turned 50.  So we had some parties to host/attend.  This first set of pictures is of Pretty Baby, Little Baby, our new daughter in-law, JC, and the four little boys.

This next set is from my sister in-law's surprise party.

And here are some random shots of Aidan.  He has been begging for corn on the cob, and he loves to think of himself as a cowboy.  G and I are old-fashioned about guns.  We think that kids who grow up knowing about them and have used them/seen the damage that they cause are not the kids who pull the trigger on strangers or loved ones, but that the kids who play violent video games are-they become dissociative.  So, yeah, Aidan has a capgun six shooter strapped onto his waist.

Today is GB's big day.

Just look at how excited BB is by his parents' vow taking:

There was no best man-Pretty Baby was the honor attendant for her brother.

Little Baby actually got dolled up for the occasion:

My third brother officiated at the ceremony:

The bride's father was pretty emotional-she is not only his baby girl, but also his first child.

And then there was the dancing.  We learned that Aidan loves to dance....

...that there is still no way for me to reach my son's height....(we danced to the only Backstreet Boys song he can tolerate-"Mom, you always were the perfect fan")

...and that the newlyweds dance together beautifully:

Notice the unharried look on my face?  That's because my child is the groom and not the bride!  Her mother is probably passed out by now.

Aidan has been bugging me to measure him, so I finally hung up his tractor/big truck/digger measurement chart and he is now 48-1/2" tall.  That means he's 10" shorter than I am and 12" taller than RB.  Definitely a good sized boy.  When we received his medical information in his referral, using growth charts, I estimated his eventual height at being between 6'1" and 6'2"-right where his big brother and his brother in-law stand.  So far he's staying on that track.

Unfortunately for him, that also means that he could only ride some of the rides at the fair-he was actually too tall for some of the rides that other five year olds were riding on!

Aidan and I both had a four day school week to start with a four day weekend to follow.  The first day I went in late so that I could drop him off at kindergarten; we did the same thing the second day.  He has spent a lot of time with the guidance counselor/assistant principal but that is declining.  By Thursday he even managed to ride the bus home with her accompanying him.  I don't see him when he gets home, so he has already told someone else all about his day and forgotten half of it or wonders why I want to know about it when he has already told the story once before, but from what G and LB tell me, he comes home excited about parts of his day.  He does want me to drop him off and pick him up.  That just can't happen.  The best I can do is wait for the bus when it goes up the road and see him board it in the morning.  If he waits to board until it comes back down the road, I'll already be gone.  So we'll work on that.

My first days went smoothly, though the result by the end of the week was as usual; I'm now spending my weekend sick with a double ear infection.  I catch everything that any student has, even after 14 years on the job.

First Day of School

Playing guitar (left handed)