Life with Robert

On Wednesday morning we met up with Kelsey at the Shell station in Somerville - the mid-way point between our two houses - and transferred Robert from her vehicle to ours. It's really nice of Kelsey to meet us like this, making the retrieval of Robert a 3 hour roundtrip, rather than a 6 hour one. Clara was there, as well. She reported that she had a wonderful experience at her first church camp, which just ended. I brought along the painting that I had done for her, all framed up, and gave it to her there in the parking lot. She seemed to like it.

After we got home we had lunch and then broke out the robot building kit I had gotten for Robert. Here are some of the fun results of about an hour and a half of construction. He really loves these. He needs some help putting them together, but for the most part can figure them out himself.

We played the Roads, Rivers, Rails game a few times, and we got better at it the more we played. I guess he enjoyed it, because he asked to play again the next day.

Finally, after dinner, we went to the nearby splash pad. It was still 101 degrees, so I smeared him with sun screen and told him that when he got too hot, we'd leave. That's why I thought it was so funny when he played for only about two minutes and then came and said he was ready to go because he was "too cold." I wrapped him in a towel and had him warm up a bit, after which he said he'd try it again. So back out he went, this time lasting maybe ten minutes and seeming to have fun. He attached himself to a couple of other children this time, so had some encouraging peer pressure.

Thursday morning he was antsy to go to the library, since I had promised him we would. The library didn't open until 10:00 a.m., and he could hardly stand to wait that long. But finally, we hopped into the car and drove downtown to get some books. I told him we could get a few for him to read to me, and a few for me to read to him. (He's actually reading very well now!) I asked the librarian what the limit was for checking out children's books. Can you believe it is FIFTY! No, I didn't get that many. but we came home with 13.

At the library. They have several statues of characters from books. This is the one Robert chose to have his picture taken with.

From the library we went to the train station. I thought Robert might like to climb on the old steam engine there - as it's open to the public and free. But he wasn't interested. From inside the car, where he was already reading books, he said, "No, I can see it from here." So . . . no train exploration. But the Whistlestop Park is right beside the train station, and that looked a little more enticing to him. We played for a half-hour or so.

Hot and tired, we headed to DQ for lunch. Robert is a dairy-free kiddo, so couldn't have the ice cream that came with the kids' meal, but the cashier was kind enough to offer him a slushy. He chose cherry, and it was a big hit.

Late in the afternoon we broke out the electronics kit. I really wondered if it would be too difficult for him to enjoy, but it wasn't. I read off the parts list for each of the projects we did, and Robert was good at finding the pieces. Then I showed him where to snap each piece onto the board, and in what order, and voila, we had sirens, lights, and other fun contraptions. Dan only had to come and help us out with one of the projects. Sure enough, we had forgotten a piece, leaving the circuit incomplete. That was not Robert's fault; it was Grandma's!

Dinner, watching a little Netflix (Chuggington), and reading from our library books brings this day to an end. Bedtime is just around the corner - for both Robert and ME! One of us is a little more excited about that than the other one. 

Stay tuned for the Friday-Saturday-Sunday episode of Life with Robert.