X's Curriculum Night / Occupational Therapy Goodbye / Tiffany's Baby Shower vs. Chick-Fil-A /
Lion King 3-D / X and A have school picnics
Friday, September 2nd - X gets a six-month re-evaluation for Occupational Therapy (OT). A few weeks ago we were told he will likely "place out" of the program that he has been doing twice a week for the last half-year. He has made HUGE strides in this area. Within a few days of this test, the results confirm that he is indeed "on-track" with his age group, so a final wrap up meeting was scheduled for September 7th and a he will have a graduation party on the 16th.
Saturday, September 10th - Tiffany's Baby Shower vs. Chick-Fil-A and the Pet Store.
Melinda's cousin Tiffany (who lives in Fort Worth) is finally pregnant after a very long wait. Melinda is hosting a baby shower and the kids are looking forward to seeing Tiffany's parents Patti and Gary (see July 2011 for the summer fun with them) along with Tiffany's sister Brittany and of course, Tiffany herself. HOWEVER I (Jack) was informed "boys are not allowed to be at the baby shower" so we had to leave. I decided that X, A and myself would go get some food at Chick-Fil-A's down the street and let them play an extra long time on the inside playground there.
It is ridiculously hot outside (something like the 63rd day in a row over 100 degrees) and we have no desire to go to the park in 104 degree weather at 2:00 PM (when this starts). Normally, we would just jump in the swimming pool, but did I mention that we were kicked out of the house for 90 minutes. After Chick-Fil-A, we went down the street to the pet store just to kill a little more time. The kids like checking out all the pets there and we are able to burn another 20 minutes indoors.
Finally we get to come home and see all the family. That night we had some great food and conversation and got caught up with the Brooks, Deckers and Buetschs.
Friday, September 16th - X has his Occupational Therapy "graduation" in our home including a neat certificate, a few toys that his therapist Ms. Ledbetter brought and a super cool helium-filled balloon dinosaur that "stands" on the floor but has just enough helium to float above the ground so you can "walk" the dinosaur around and his body stays at the right place. While the helium left within a week, the dinosaur stays on a cork board in X's room and Ms. Ledbetter stays in X's heart. She has certainly made a gigantic impact in X's life and is on the top of our "homecoming party" list (when we get to celebrate the adoption of X and A).
Immediately after the graduation party with Ms. Ledbetter, we jump in the already-packed car and head to the theatrical re-release of Melinda's all-time favorite animated movie, Disney's "Lion King" except this time it is "Lion King 3-D." We were correct to leave a little extra early. Galaxy Drive-In was packed, but we got a fine parking place anyway. Of course, this is one movie the kids DO get to watch and they have fun all night in their 3-D glasses.
Thursday, September 22nd - X has a school picnic at 6:00 PM and we all get to come. We grab some food and head to his school. There is not much structured activity going on other than the high school band made entirely of former students from this elementary playing a few songs (good recruiting tool for future band members). X gets to run all over the playground and show us what he can do. There are seemingly hundreds of kids screaming and running at full speed including X and A. They are having a blast!
We finally get to meet Caden, one of X's best friends plus his mother and father (who we quickly realize are almost half our age). Of course, we always knew this would be the case with many of his friends' parents and have accepted it. Jack and his ex-wife had Alex and Erich when they were only 19 and then 21-years-old. Alex and Erich are now 21 and 24, so, year, we are technically are "grandparents" age. However, there are actually a lot more "older" parents like us than there used to be. So while we might be mistaken occasionally as the grandparents, there are enough of us 40 - 45-year-olds with kids that we don't feel awkward. X's last best friend, Oliver, who moved to Corpus Christi in April had parents that were even older than us. We have said it before on this blog, we are in the Melinda and Jack 2.0 Phase (and loving every minute of it). Hopefully, you have read in this blog: there is NOTHING that slows us down from having fun with X and A - certainly not our age!
Thursday, September 29th - A has a family picnic after school that we all get to go to. While similar to X's, it is MUCH smaller.The kids get to play on the playground and bounce houses and they get their faces painted. Everyone eats plenty of food including Melinda's tasty cupcakes (which were a bit "fudgy," but oh, so awesome) - go Homemaker Melinda!
While a huge departure from making big corporate-level decisions as an Arts Marketing Director for THE biggest arts organizations in Texas, Melinda is using no less of her creative talent - she is just redirecting it toward what she can do with and for the boys. In the words of X, "She is Supermommy!" We all believe that and see it every day.
Yeah, we may be twice the age as some of these parents. but that also means we have WAY more life experiences and (hopefully) are a bit wiser than ourselves of 20 years ago. We fully embrace this new phase of life and, learning from our past mistakes, are determined to make this next 20 years the best years - with our whole world wrapped around what is best for the kids. While we love Alex and Erich, and, of course, are here when they want or need us, they are now grown and making their own decisions. We now get a chance to shape another set of lives - those of X and A.
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