log cabins

Gus and I (and, Abby now, too)… we spend a lot of time in-between.  Waiting.  Killing time.  Rylie Joy has some form of therapy or school each day.  Our Fridays are spent at a preschool while Ry has physical therapy, then occupational therapy, and then speech therapy back-to-back.  It’s really not enough time for us to master any worthwhile errands with grace and good humor, so we head to the school gym and make use of the tricycles and balls and water fountains.  By the time Rylie is finished working, 3 out of the 4 of us are usually wet. For several reasons.

Remember in school when the teacher would hang your artwork outside on the classroom bulletin board for all to admire?  It was so amazing to walk down that hall and see your work up there.  You were famous! Your parents confirmed you were the smartest in the class and assumed an art scholarship was right around the corner.  It’s ok that you went another way.  We all have to choose our own path.

This school is no different, and we often stroll down the hallways admiring the letters and pictures and crafts that decorate the boards.  You come to know some of the children.  Nathan is getting much better at writing his name!  Sara only colors with purple.  Xzavier is mad that his parents spelled his name so creatively.  He’s working it out with strong, serious lines.

Gideon is very familiar with the school.  He’s got 2 years of wandering under his belt and often scurries out of the gym and down to Miss Amy’s room before I can catch him.  Or to Patti who has the bubbles.  Or the exercise room with the rocking horse.  He’s not hard to find.  Often he returns with snacks or a sticker, a gift from teachers who have become friends.

This time: stick pretzels.  Every kid loves stick pretzels.  Gus loves anything he can grab by the fist-full.  Pretzels are also immensely crushable, which totally ups their cool factor for SuperKid.  He is out the door and then back again before I can gather Abby up and chase after him, so we share the pretzels in the gym.  He has such a heart, my little man.

We finish our snack and gather our chaos.  Park the bikes along the wall, put the balls back in the storage room.  And then on down the hall to pick up Ry, trailing a few pretzel crumbs as we go.  One of Ry’s therapists stops me on the way and fills me in on her progress.  We stop and chat, me bouncing Abby and watching Gus closely inspect the bulletin boards.

The current theme is President’s Day.  Flags and busts and collages.  And on the preschool board, log cabins… in honor of my favorite Mister Abraham Lincoln. So creative.

Funny that all the log cabins are a little wonky in construction… preschoolers are completely satisfied with the abstract.  Some cabins were missing windows, others chimneys.  Silly Laura, though… she didn’t even color hers in.  Just turned her paper in blank except for the marker outline of a cabin where Honest Abe was born.

Well, a marker outline of a cabin and some glue remnants.

Upon closer inspection, I see that the cabins aren’t colored in-  they’re physically filled in.  And, there’s glue on all of the cabin pictures… glue holding the pretzel ‘logs’ in place.  But Laura’s… there on the bottom row… all of Laura’s logs are missing.  Her cabin has been stripped bare.

It must have been so cold in that little cabin.

Oh, Laura.

I am so sorry we ate your cabin.

We owe you one.

And, that’s really all I can say.