We WILL go outside and enjoy the sun!

Despite the 40-degree weather. The native-American summer has ended for now, but there's still sun, so we made the most of it Saturday afternoon with a playground trip.
In other new, Sam went to his first session of the Eastman School of Music's Music Makers class, intended for kids his age. Had a great time! Even wanted to know when he could go back. Woohoo! It would be a lot of fun if we could develop his musical ability. And just as good if he simply had a pleasant time with music.

Other than that, not much; went to the mall and to the YMCA, where he played with a bunch of kids, including a boy name Nico and a girl named Infinity.

No mechanical dishwasher this weekend. Our kitchen contents are piled in the dining room and sun porch. Half the time we are searching for a spoon, or what have you.

Sam used to earn stickers for a sticker chart by washing his hands after using the toilet. Now he earns stickers by setting the table each night. This is a chore, so it's not optional, though sometimes we help. He's getting reasonably good at it, too.

Today in church, despite being Lent, we had an Easter hymn and the children's sermon was the resurrection story, told in gory detail. (Curious to ask Sam how much he remembers of it...) The pastor explained his saying that in Lent we look forward to Easter--apparently, today, by acting as if it is Easter!

This is my long-winded explanation of why we felt perfectly justified in letting Sam put some colorful gel Easter decorations up on the living-room window. He also, during the mall trip, got to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap, about which he was quite excited. He's already decorated some eggs--that was a couple of weeks ago. Can we claim that by distancing these non-religious but Easter-correlated traditions and practices from Easter itself we are helping to set aside Easter day for genuine focus on the resurrection?

Nope, didn't think so! :-)

Also shown: Sam and Ian at a park where a man was flying an $8,000 miniature helicopter. The man was quite friendly with the kids, but also sternly warned them not to touch it, saying "it's not a toy." Susan managed to keep to herself the question, In what was isn't this a toy?!

Sam's mostly been sleeping better lately--a change from a month ago when he managed to have us up at least once a night, often more. But still the early hours are challenging. I think the heat comes on around 5:30 or 6:00, Sam tosses off his covers in his sleep, cools down, and hasn't yet gotten the hang of re-covering himself.

Sometimes we hear interesting things when we go into his room at night. Last night when Susan went in at 6, they had this exchange:

Sam (sleepily): You said you were going to make butterflies.
Susan: It's time to go back to sleep for a little while.
Sam: I already AM asleep.

Hah!