Last Day of Preschool
Today was the last day of preschool. Until summer school starts, that is. I’ve been dreading this day a bit, because it’s going to be tough having Lucas off for 2 weeks. After much hemming and hawing, it sounds like Karen will be having summer session—but I still don’t know if Lucas will go 3 full days or 4 mornings per week. I have a feeling he’ll enjoy the four mornings more, but I don’t know how that will affect my work. It sounds like Kimberlee and Emma will attend summer session with Lucas. I’m really hoping my friend Holly will bring Teryn too.
Anyway, tonight we had a potluck picnic at the bird track park on Pheasant. Kevan and her mom Nora were there with Karla, Nick, and Julie. Anna was there with Emma. Cindy, Gordon, Kimberlee and Joe (their teenage roommate) were there too. It was a lot of fun and there was yummy food. Of course, Lucas was so distracted by the kids and being in the playground that he hardly ate at all. The weather was beautiful. (We have had such a mild summer so far.)
We Wilsons presented Miss Karen with a cement and glass stepping stone that we made for her garden. Ian designed it to have two roses, one red and one orange, with crossing stems, and there’s a little white arch in the back to represent Karen’s white garden archway that we have passed through every single day of school. Lucas helped place the stained glass into the wet cement and tapped them down lightly. Karen had gifts of baby dolls for all the children too. Lucas’s doll is blue—of course.
Recently the children made stick horses at Little Gate. Lucas’s stick horse is, of course, blue. They’re stuffed with wool that the children carded themselves. Lucas chose red buttons for eyes and Karen says he helped her sew them on. It has a little finger-knitted bridle out of yarn. I think its name is Mr. Ed. Lucas brought Mr. Ed home today, and he desperately wanted to bring him along to the picnic.
The handmade stick horse really serendipitous too, because Lucas has been really interested in cowboys since his birthday. He got the Woody doll (à la Toy Story—even though Lucas has not seen the movie) from us for his birthday. He actually asked for a Woody doll for last Christmas. For months he has shown a distinct preference for the pull-ups that have Woody on them over the ones that have Buzz Lightyear—ever since the Woody design was introduced. For the last couple of weeks, Lucas has been wearing the cowboy hat that Glen gave to Ian when Ian was a boy. He’s rediscovered his rocking horse too. Sometimes Woody rides it, sometimes Lucas, sometimes they both ride it.
It appears Lucas has developed an allergy to mosquito bites. I didn’t know one could actually be allergic to mosquito venom, but I poked around on the Internet tonight and confirmed it. I’ve been suspecting that he is having a greater-than-normal reaction to them for a week or so. He got several bites that swelled up and became quite inflamed, then they were open wounds for many days. Actually—they still haven’t healed completely. Unfortunately, today, Lucas came home from school with probably 10 new bites. I guess he might have gotten some of them here yesterday evening, but I didn’t notice. Now, however, he’s swollen all over with bites. I bought some anti-itch stuff and covered his welts with band aids. We put hydrocortisone on his left side and the new anti-itch gel on his right. Tomorrow we’ll see if there’s any visible difference. I may run to the grocery store tomorrow and buy the Merkel family mosquito bite remedy: roll-on antiperspirant with the aluminum salts in it that you aren’t supposed to use in your armpits anymore. I’ve actually read in magazines within the last year that it works to reduce the swelling and stop the itching—so it’s not just a Merkel legend born in the coastal jungles of Mexico in … what… 1982. Dang! Why didn’t I think about that today when I was buying food for tonight’s picnic?
