T-Ball

Gorgeous day here so off to T-Ball. The great thing about T-Ball is that it is at the same time and same place every week - so it makes it nice and easy for us parents ! Hudson seems to have been adopted as the team mascot - just as well it is only a summer sport as Huddy is also the Mascot for the rugby team so he will shortly need to get his rugby boots buffed and ready!

Miss you Daddy

Daddy is away for a month in Canberra and although we are very busy without you Daddy ... just know that your little boy misses you. Tonight Joshua wrote this note and has put it on your pillow and said "I want this to be the first thing Daddy sees when he comes home".

My Granny Cranney

Mummy went out to the Diana Krall Concert tonight so Josh got to spend some one-on-one time with Granny Cranney. What can we tell you about Granny Cranney ... well she is an INCREDIBLY special and important person in our lives. She looked after Josh from within 2 hours of being born until we adopted him at 39 days old. She has stayed in our lives as a surrogate grandmother and she calls Joshua her grandson - and does so with pride and love. In her thick Scottish accent, she has always called Joshua ... "my little Jimmy" .. and that is her own special name for him. She is a mother of 9 and a grandmother of 22 (including Josh) - wow!

We talk regularly, almost weekly, and if she hasn't seen Joshua in a few months, she invites herself in and insists that we go out for an evening so she can have some time with ... just Josh.

We have grown to love Granny Cranney very much and think of her as part of our family. The bond and connection between her and Josh is unspoken, it is simply 'just there'.

We made heart-shaped cookies for Granny Cranney tonight and Josh said they were heart-shaped "because we love you Granny Cranney" - and indeed we do.

Josh and Granny Cranney eating ice-blocks out on the deck ... just chatting and sharing secrets

We have a changed boy ...

Josh has been at Scots Prep School now for a little over 2 weeks and ... we have a changed boy. How can I explain this ? Well, he is just so much happier and animated; he bounces off to school in the mornings and is relatively motivated to do his homework; he loves mathletics, an online maths program for which he has his own log-on number (in fact after only 2 days he was ranked 13th in the top 100 students in New Zealand for his age group who were doing their maths online that day); Josh seems to look upon the school uniform as a bench-mark and feels better about himself because he 'looks' the same as his peers. But the biggest change of all is in his self confidence - he is prepared to give things a go and there is even a hint of competitiveness we have never seen before.

Just to note down a few memories of Joshua that spring to mind and bring a smile to my face over the past 2 weeks ... visualise Josh ...

• ... running out of class at the end of the day with a huge smile on his face and 2 merit stickers stuck on his shirt collar;
• ... arriving at school, taking off his jacket and his tie, and running outside with Spencer to play, giggling as they went;
• ... proudly telling me in the car on the way home that he already had 2 good friends at Scots - Spencer and Kevin;
• ... sitting in the car after school telling me about the music class and then showing me the hand movements as he sang the notes from high to low (not a bad little voice !);
• ... super keen to go online and do his mathletics programme, a worldwide maths programme on which you compete against your own best score, the computer or go and search others around the world who are playing at the same time - last Wednesday Josh was coming 13th out of the top 100 children playing online that evening.
• ... so excited to receive a Principal's Award - Mr Cassie's acknowledgement of Joshua having competed in his very first Triathlon in the weekend;
• ... explaining to me in a very serious voice about what causes the rain - Jesus in heaven is crying;
• ... his excitement in realising that he was coming second in class for merit stickers and sharing with me (albeit very quietly) his wish to try and come first;
• ... his insistence that he shakes Mr Cassie's (the Principal) hand at the end of each school day (Mummy cringes a tad with this as the handshake is a combination of shaking the hand and doing a little jump at the same time!);
  

And then to top it all off, Mummy received an email yesterday from Mrs Bell - Joshua's teacher - that said "Joshua has settled in so quickly and is loving our routines. He is really blossoming and is a pleasure to have in the class".

They say that a parent cannot be happy unless their child is happy. Well ... Joshua is now a happy boy at school - so Mummy too feels happy, relieved and emotionally so much more free.

Note the lime green merit sticker on his collar - on Friday it was a double-whammy as there is an identical sticker on the other side of his collar !

Writing stories with Sara

Although Josh is still doing his music programme 5 days a week, we are also back seeing Sara every now and then just to keep tabs on Joshua's progress and currently to help Josh with his story writing, something that he seems to find a little difficult to do. Sara was very clever and had on her screen an intro page on Scots College and so with some help from Sara, Joshua wrote a story about his new school. We are so very grateful to Sara for all she is doing for Josh.

Wow, so many achievements ...

Josh is really enjoying the Scots "way". Not only do we have individual cards on the wall in the classroom for both personal and community merits, but Joshua came home today with a 'FRIEND' Certificate acknowledging the help he has given to the new boys in settling in. As we all know, a lot of emphasis today is put on academic achievement so it is heart-warming to see that they also acknowledge more personal efforts like this.

And today, Joshua took in a photo board of his first Triathlon (thanks Mummy for helping me!) and stood up and presented it at Morning News. According to Mrs Bell, he was very talkative about it and so she sent him over to Mr Cassie's office and he gave Josh a Principals Award sticker - suffice to say Josh strutted out of school today looking VERY happy with himself!

Congratulatons Josh

Aunty Margaret & Uncle Apples sent Josh a congratulations card for his first triathlon - Josh proudly pinned it onto his notice board ! Another wee reminder that children, just like adults, like to be reassured and acknowledged.