Picnic Bubbles
Greetings to everyone.
In late July we attended a church picnic. It was held at a club house, so it had a park, play equipment and a pool in the list of amenities available.
In the park area, set up for the little kids, was a little machine which produced dozens of bubbles at a time (a little paddle with several rings turning through bubble solution and blown into the air by a fan). Once he saw this, Xavier squealed with delight! He never wanted to leave the machine (in fact, at one point, he nabbed it and ran off with it)
The event photographer caught several pictures of Xavier with the bubbles. We were able to get a copy of the most iconic one. It took a while to get this copy and the rights to publish it, but here it is.
Lena
Greetings to everyone.
Over the last several months, Xavier matured enough to really appreciate our Dalmatian, Lena. She became a constant source of amusement for him.
He would chase her around the back yard and the house. He would sit in her doggie bed with her, which she did not like and quickly left when he joined her (usually to come to an adult and with puppy-dog eyes plead to get her bed back). He would feed her kibble, bacon, cookies, Cheerios, chips, carrots and just about anything he should be eating, but was not.
In fact, Xavier's first two-word sentence on record was yelling "Shut up!" at her barking. He loved his doggie (or "augg-ie" was how he often pronounced the word).
Rebecca and I talked about getting more pictures of Xavier and Lena together, but we could never get that to work out. Lena seemed to be keenly able to avoid the camera, except when she photo-bombed them.
Xavier is a total camera cheeser. As soon as he saw a camera come out, he stopped playing with Lean and ran to smile at the camera (possibly with the hope of getting his hands on it as well). So, we have very few pictures of Xavier and Lena together.
In her younger days (or even a few years ago), Lena would have loved such attention as Xavier took to showering her with. However, these last few months she really slowed and showed her age. She had a degenerative disease with her nervous system, she was old, growing weaker and slower. She only wanted gentle petting, food, water and a warm, comfortable place to sleep the day and night away. She no longer liked the days of action such as Xavier hoped she would.
Sadly, the rigors of thirteen years of age caught up with Lena quickly as the cold weather moved in. She slept all the time, was too stiff to move much of the time and no longer able to realize she needed to go outside. She was also showing the occasional tendency to nip when disturbed.
Monday, November 23rd we made the call. We took Lena in for her final vet visit. I would have noted this last month, but it seemed such sad news.
Today, I came across a picture of Xavier (unknowingly being photographed) showing affection to Lena. It made me happy we have a few of these pictures, and this one, taken July 31st is a good memorial to her.
Xavier's First Christmas Play
Greetings to everyone.
Today was another rite of passage for both Xavier and his parents: his first Christmas play.
The older children (kindergarteners) entered the sanctuary from the back while waving tinsel. Teachers helped herd them and keep them moving forward, while giving cues to keep waving their tinsel. Many stopped and said "hi" to parents as the proceeded down the aisle.
They quickly lined up on the platform, then performed a few songs about the Christmas Story. It was fun watching so many try to do as they had practiced, but each one remembering what to do differently than the one next to them, and different from the teacher pantomiming their cues.
The pre-K children processed down the aisle near the middle of the program. Many more teachers and teacher's aides were spread throughout this crowd. Keeping three and under kids moving forward was definitely hard work for these vigilant (and well-practiced) people.
Xavier was in the middle of this crowd carrying a bell on a post. He passed by Rebecca and me but did not see us (he was on the wrong side of the teacher to see us). You could tell he was caught up by all the visual stimuli in the auditorium.
When his teacher positioned him, Rebecca and I thought we would not be able to see him. He was too short even on the stair; the platform hid him. Apparently, he had sat down. His teacher got him to stand up, and we could see his head and shoulders from where we sat.
Taking cues from one of the helpers standing in front of his little group, Xavier shook or waved his post with a bell on it during the next set of songs. After a while, Xavier grew a little bored. Looking around, he saw his music teacher directing the singing of the older children on center stage.
He put down his bell and started conducting the conductor. In my taking of pictures, I did not realize what he was doing. When I looked over the pictures, I saw what he was doing and laughed.
After the play ended, we picked Xavier up in his classroom. Signing him out, we headed over to the gym to enjoy cookies and a specialized rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas performed by the teachers.
Xavier's teachers were dressed as turtles (his class animal) and had green boas down their arms and white dove wings on their hands. They were the two Turtle Doves of the song.