HISMSV - 8

Today, my little girl started her first VBS session.   I don't know why but it hadn't occurred to me until late last week that she is finally old enough for it.  For anyone who isn't familiar with it, VBS stands for "Vacation Bible School", otherwise knows as Christian daycamp.  Most churches run one and they can be a lot of fun.  Think crafts, stories, music, themed snacks and lots of games.

We registered Pk for the local United Church.  We know some people there and while we don't agree with every stand of the United Church as a denomination, they are certainly closer to us than many others (and, let me say, I am not especially concerned about which "kind" of Christian you are, provided that you aren't harshly judgmental or overly vague in your teaching).  There's another church in town offering a VBS later this month but, after some research, they are doing the same programme so it didn't really seem to matter much.

We were so impressed!  We arrived to find that there were several families there we know whose kids had done it before and had a wonderful time.  It's being run by two retired teachers who very clearly had everything under control and were offering to take an autistic boy whose siblings were going and he was very upset at being left out.  The teacher who did Pk's registration was kind and drew her out, despite the fact that she was feeling shy and clinging to my leg.  By the time she was registered, she was thrilled to be there and happily wandered into the sanctuary to join the other kids.  Sadly, LB was not so happy and wailed at his sister's departure.  Poor guy!

 LB had his 2 year appointment today and Dh ended up taking him, since Dh had to get something looked at, too, and one of us had to be here to get Pk.  It would seem that the appointment went well, our doctor is not at all concerned about his speech (it's been a worry for me since he speaks so much less than his sister did at that age).  His height is the 16th percentile, weight is 36th and, wait for this, his head circumference is the 97th.  Poor kid has the family big head - I am trying to tell myself it's his huge brain.  Our doctor did remark that, given his sense of humour and how he related, there is "absolutely no concern about autism with this one!"

The funny thing was, I ended up at home, by myself, for almost two hours.  I think that has happened 3 or 4 times since LB was born.  It was such a strange experience.  I had this long list of things I wanted to get done but truly, I did very little other than wander aimlessly.  It was almost eerie.  Before I knew it, I had to go back to get Pk.  I wonder when the next time it will be that it happens!

The rest of the day was fairly normal.  Little bits about VBS trickled out - they have good snack but their juice was yucky, the kids need to take food for the food pantry since, "mummy, they only have one apple juice left!", the teachers were nice and they learned about Noah.  She is also very excited because they are going to do a performance on Friday just before it's over.  We did get a great laugh.  The memory verse sent home was:
"Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and do not rely on your own intelligence."
I worked on with with Pk as a fill in - Trust in the ______ with all of your ________ and do not rely on your own ______________.  She was good with "Lord" and "Heart" but I laughed until I cried when she ended with "parents" instead of "intelligence".

 We spent the afternoon doing some mother/daughter crafting (me with LB's birthday scrapbook and Pk doing glitter).

 We discovered my sweet peas have started to bloom (and if you haven't experienced their incredible fragrance, you are missing something).

 We went to buy food for the pantry.  That gave me a good chance to educate Pk in the kids of food that are actually nutritious.  I had trouble convincing her that the food pantry didn't need jars of pickles.

 There was swimming (it was cold but at least LB has regained his joy in jumping into the water and is already swimming better than his sister) and we had a fun visit to Starbucks.  Pk noticed that their logo is a princess and according announced that Starbucks is her new favourite store.

 The weather was kind of funky and we got to see at least four rainbows on the drive home.  That was exciting for all of us!

Good night!