Ryan helps me pick up Gracie from preschool. They sometimes walk out with their arms around each other like they are best buds. Gracie told me that Jonathan and James were picking on her and Ryan came to her defense the other day. This was nice to hear since it isn’t uncommon to find Gracie chasing Ryan around while he has her blanket or toy. Ryan is quite proud of his potty going and does a good job most of the time. He’s still in the needing constant praise and encouragement/diaper for naps and bedtime phase but I’m happy he’s going at all. Before bed he insists on giving hugs and kisses to everyone. This and needing to go to the potty are his favorite stall tactics at bedtime. He is always running somewhere non-stop so he sometimes runs into walls, beds and so forth. He gets hurt and lets me hold him while he pretends to cry. I ask him if his teeth hurt and he replies by touching that part of his body and saying “yeah”. I proceed to cover everything, hair, ears, nose, belly button and toes and sure enough they are all hurt. He lets me read to him in the rocking chair or on his bed and loves gathering lots and lots of books.

Gracie’s favorite past times are combing or brushing my hair and anything Strawberry Shortcake. She also enjoys our daily reading lessons.

Today James came home from school and told me how they had them do something “inappropriate” in VAPA, Visual and Performing Arts. He said they had them dance and move their bums. I asked him if he said anything about it and he said “No, I only thought about it once I was walking home.”

Last night Michael and I were sitting on the ground while Jonathan and James were going to bed. James sleeps on the top bunk and Jonathan on the bottom.

James: “I’m in love with two girls at school.”

Jonathan: moaning and disgusted noises followed by “Ugh, I’m not hearing this. Man, this is bad.” type of stuff.

James explained that he is in love with Melanie and another girl with a name like Melanie but he couldn’t remember it.

James: “Mmm something M, mmm, mmm, Maddie. That’s it. Maddie.”

Jonathan: “Get me out of here. No more secret handshakes with you James” Ugh

Michael and me asked about the girls and explained that sometimes we really like friends and that’s fine but being in love may mean something different than what he thinks it means.

James: “Well I’m a friend with all the other girls, but I’m in love with Melanie and Maddie.” He went on to explain that he is in the same reading group as Maddie and the teacher has them sit on the ground and they read together. He plays a game with a ball at recess and always chooses to give Melanie his spot.

Melanie goes to our church so I had tried to get James to be friends with her when school started. I guess he took it to heart.

As we left the room I heard him saying to Jonathan, “Just try not to think about it, Jonathan.”