Another dreary day didn’t stop Riesling and Cashel. While time marched on to 7:00 AM, they played trains and made maps of their take along Thomas the Train mat. The black crayon is Cashel’s contribution.
After smoothies, they moved on to examining the gifts under the Christmas tree that Aunt Lisa had sent, guessing and hoping about their contents. Then Cashel looked at a book while Riesling ate a pumpkin muffin. Afterwards, Riesling played Sesame Street Games on the computer while Cashel watched.
They did some arts and crafts which consisted of using a glue stick to affix googly eyes to Cashel’s “smoothie warmer” (a koozie) and a huge plastic mug that Riesling sometimes puts her smoothie in if her hands are cold.
Then it was back to the trains and soon after playing cat. I noticed that Riesling was playing the role of cat as well today and that the cats were being chased by a monster…the Mommy monster!
They did some flipping which involves beginning on our bed, flipping and then landing feet first on the floor.
For together time I suggested making a crystal snow flake. Riesling was all about it. Cashel said the he didn’t like the snowflake and played with his trains. Riesling twisted her pipe cleaners together and I put the string on. She got a skinny marker for me to hang the snowflake in the mason jar with. Then she measured out 6 tablespoons Borax and I poured in 2 cups of boiling water. She stirred until the Borax was all dissolved. I added more Borax until it was super saturated and she put in her snowflake. I used my very rudimentary understanding of what was going on to try to explain the science to Riesling. She seemed most excited to show Joe.
It was now that Cashel decided that he wanted to make a spider web. So I wound lots of string around the pipe cleaners that he had cut. He wanted nothing to do with the crystal part of the experiment.
He and Riesling played spider for a while and then Riesling dressed up as a “real” knight and Cashel began construction on a train track. Riesling’s costume soon morphed into a firefighter complete with head gear.
After lunch we hustled to the van for a quick trip to Harrisonburg. Cashel passed out. I was excited to find out that I could squeeze him into the infant carrier attached to a cart and buckle him in. We hurried through Martin’s and by the time we got to Ragtime Fabrics, Cashel was ready for some action. I quickly got some more material for Christmas gifts and pried the kids away from the toys so that we could leave. Riesling seemed very tired of all this hurrying.
Next stop, Marrow Family Eye Care for my new glasses. While I got them fitted both children tried on and rearranged the children’s glasses and cases. This stop took way too long and now we were behind schedule. When we got outside Cashel took a right turn down the sidewalk, away from our van, with Riesling close behind. He said that he wanted to walk the curb to the van. It took lots of patience for me to quit worrying about how late we were becoming and to hold his little hand while he wobbled along. Riesling led the way, while I occasionally reached out to steady her too. We got to a white line on the pavement that would lead us to the van and I suggested they take that as a direct route. Finally we were off to our final stop to get some milk.
On the way home Riesling remarked that glasses is a funny word because it can mean the glasses that you drink out of, or the ones you wear.
When we got home Riesling read her Children’s Bible until it was time to go again.
This time we were headed to the Merck Christmas get together. On our way in we saw one of Riesling’s classmates, Nicholas, from JMU Young Children’s Program and his family. They pretty 
much ignored each other. Once inside she did an introductory dance and Riesling did some break dancing to accompany the choristers. Then she asked me to go sit with her to listen to them sing. She reiterated how excited she was to be in choir again in January.
I had to take Cashel to the potty and when I returned Leyland, Satchel and their Mom were there. He and Riesling were beyond excited to see each other. They played and race around with Cashel, Satchel and another three year old joined in.
After the adults had enough and were getting hungry we went to meet Nicholas’ and Leyland’s families at Ciro’s, an Italian restaurant. Though they didn’t interact at all at the restaurant, Leyland gave Riesling a hug and a peck on the cheek good bye.
Cashel was in bread only mode. I secretly cringed every time he downed another bite of inferior piece of white roll. He insisted the I take all the “yucky” stuff off of his pizza. When it was down to the cheese and sauce I thought that would be ok, but no. He just wanted to eat the crust. On the way home he complained that he had a stomach ache.
As we were getting out of the car, I reminded Riesling about her crystal snowflake and Cashelabout his spider web. They raced inside to show Joe.
Riesling told him all of the steps and about how the molecules danced apart when the water was warm, but snuggled up into crystals as they cooled.
The moment Cashel saw how interesting and sparkly the crystal snowflake looked, he said that he wanted to make his that way too. I quickly boiled some water and Joe mixed it into the mason jar that Riesling had used, putting the Borax back into solution. Cashel got his scissors and clipped the ends off the web so that it would fit into the jar. I tied it to a pencil and then Joe held the mason jar while Cashel carefully lowed his spider web in.
After a quick change, brush and wash it was time for stories. Cashel chose to have the electronic Story Reader tell Cinderella and Riesling asked me to read What Lives in a Shell? by Kathleen Zoehfeld. Then Riesling straightened out Cashel’s pillow for him and went off to bed. I couldn’t believe Cashel hadn’t fallen asleep during the stories. He asked me to rock a little bit with him. I figured that it would take less than a minute for him to drift off. The last thing I remember as I drifted off and became still was his little voice urging me to “Rock Mommy, rock.”
No related posts.
