Brrrinnggg bbrrriiiinnnngggg

As Josh and I were waiting for a friend to call yesterday to let me know that she was ready to go for a playdate I explained to him that when we got the call we'd leave. so next thing you know he's going "Brrrinnggg bbrrriiiinnnngggg Hey, the phone's ringing". Nice try.

We went to an awesome playground with the wife and son of Josh's Best Big Buddy - we first met him because he owns our local beer distributorship then we also ran into him and his family while we were going for swim lessons. Then when Dima and I went to his open house at school we found out that his daughter is in Dima's first grade class. When we saw each other in the classroom we set up the playdate so the two younger ones could hang out together. The playground is in a Memorial park that's dedicated to a young mother and her daughter that were murdered in Collegeville years ago - a horrific, sobering story that really makes you appreciate and think twice about the time that you spend with the kids and how quickly things can change.


http://www.limerickpa.org/RecreationFacilities.htm

I'd heard about the playground before and just had the chance to take my guys there for the first time last week. It's great for Josh cause he makes car sounds in the huge slide - tubes and makes friends of all the other kids. Dima likes swinging now that he's mastered doing it on his own so it was ideal for both of them. While we were there yesterday Josh also hooked up with a bigger kid who was leading him around and taking him from his playdate friend deliberately and he even pushed Josh's friend and made him cry. I wasn't sure if or how to intervene as far as making Josh play with one versus the other but it became clear to Josh that it was a bad choice to hang with him when he gave him a shove too. The kid was there with a sitter who was spending time on her cell phone and not really paying attention to what was going on. When Josh's friend got pushed I told Josh that if he sees something like that he should tell the other kid that it's not nice and not to do it again - so he marched right over to the kid an told him off.... not really what I meant but it did seem to bring him down a notch. Til Josh got shoved too and then it was time to go anyway so we all went for pizza.

Josh did have his Open House this past week and he first had to say hi to his old teacher and play a while with the toys in that room. He knows this year's teacher from when Dima was in her class so he just went right in and played there too. This year I've signed him up for a few Lunch Bunch sessions so he can see some of the kids from last year -they go early and have lunch there and do a craft or story time or something extra too. The Lunch Bunch teacher came into the class while were there and Josh went up to her and hugged her and she said that she and Josh have a "connection" I didn't burst her bubble by telling her that he has connections with pretty much everyone.

"Dima, Who did you sit with on the bus?"
"No one."
"How about at lunch?"
"I ate by myself."
"Did you say hello to anyone?"
"No."
"You know kids in your class, you can say hi to them or introduce yourself if you don't already know them."
"I don't want to."

Don't ask me how Dima's school year is going cause it's really hard to get any info from him. He came home one day this past week with a bandaid and I've heard several different stories of how it happened. I asked a friend's son who is older and rides the same bus if Dima's wild on the bus and he said no but he does just kinda sing at random - OOOOOKKKKAAAYYYY.... I think one of the neighbor girls takes him to his classroom and has been looking out for him to some extent. I'd LOVE to be a fly on the wall and see what really happens during his day. He's bringing home stuff that's done during the day and even when I ask about that it's hard to get information. I'm trusting that no news is good news but I'll still get in touch with the teacher and find out for sure what's happening one of these days.