Monday, June 9, 2008

I know it's been a tremendously long time since I last updated. I have been gently reminded that it was time again to write about the exciting world of Frankie.

His fifth birthday was fabulous. We celebrated the Tuesday night before his birthday so everyone could be there. It was slightly overwhelming for him, but I think he enjoyed himself. He still doesn't get the whole "present" aspect of his birthday, or the cake, or the singing, or the blowing out of the candles. But, what he does get is the feeling of love that surrounds him every day of the year. He laughed with his cousins the entire time. He's got a great full-bellied laugh.

On Wednesday, his birthday, I brought cupcakes into his school to celebrate his birthday again. His class has roughly six children, so it was nice to have them all sit at the table and sing to him. He and his teachers made a crown for him... it was adorable.

Then, on June 5th, the AM classes (two rooms) had a spring concert. The children had been practicing the songs for a couple of weeks. This was by far the high-point of his year. While he can't sing and he doesn't have the fine motor skills to move his hands and body with the songs' gestures, you could tell he was having a blast. My dad, Frank, his parents and I were all there beaming with pride. He danced around with his paraprofessional (teacher's aid) almost the entire time. He adores her (Thanks, Rita!) He only tried to run toward me a couple of times when he saw me.

On Saturday, June 7th, we went to his cousin, Lex's fifth birthday party. My sister had a table set up outside (in the heat, oh boy!) for the kids to do arts and crafts. after painting one piece of paper, with my help of course, Frankie had about enough. I went to wash his hands in the big bucket of water when he decided that he wanted to get in the bucket. We let him, and I have a handful of very funny photos of my son enjoying himself, as a result. Then everyone decided maybe it would be best for all of the kids if we put on the sprinkler. But, nothing held a candle to the bucket for my kid.

So, Frank & I picked up a baby pool for Sunday. He had an absolute blast playing in and out of it. He'd jump in, jump out, slide on the slide, run around the yard, eat leaves, lay half-in half-out of the pool, eat more leaves... yeah, he had a blast.

And, today, the heat was so unbearable... the pool was a welcome relief to him and his cousin, Noah. They played for over an hour in this little pool. I could barely get Frankie away from it when it was time to pick up Frank from work.

We've been doing very creative things to beat the heat since we only put in our one air conditioner today. I've been seen walking around various stores just because they have A/C. The difficult part is not purchasing anything. Thankfully, Frankie is tolerant of this activity. We even went out for ice cream last night... but that was mainly because we lost power (major rainstorm) and with no fans, the house was suffocatingly hot.

Oh, and Frankie's last day of school is Thursday, but he has qualified for ESY (Extended School Year), so he starts up again for the month of July. Then we're back to Duke for our 3 year visit in August.

Well, that's about it for the update... I do have pictures, but that takes me longer to edit and upload, so Brian... you'll just have to be a wee bit more patient! ;)

Take care everyone... hug your kids, nieces, nephews, grandkids... and tell them you love them every day!