Guitar playing happy birthday!

Today Lincoln had a little celebration in his kindergarten class. There are so many regulations these days that it makes it hard to really do much, but we tried to make the best of it. I totally understand why they do it, what with all the allergies and other issues it would be hard to keep everyone happy, but gone are the days of just being able to bring in a treat for everyone and sing happy birthday. Lincoln chose some pencils and glow sticks to pass out to all his friends since we couldn't do food, they were a hit. His teacher seems like such a neat lady and I'm really thrilled with his class in general.

(These were the gifts Linc wanted to hand out. The thing in the middle is a birthday cake that Oliver made for Linc, while he was at school. It has crushed tortilla chips and salsa with a strawberry topper. He was very excited to give it to Lincoln.)

Linc asked his dad last week if he would come into his class and play his guitar and sing. We both were surprised by the request, but thought it was an excellent idea. He requested a beetles song so Josh chose yellow submarine thinking it would be a fun song that the kids could sing along to. He also sang happy birthday and a fun jiggy song from the 20's on his banjo ukulele.

I couldn't have been more proud of the amazing man that I married during the little show. He was amazing with the kids and gave an impressive little performance, and I could see the pride beaming in Linc too! It really warmed my heart to see him sharing one of his many talents with all of these kids, and the teachers are begging him to come back and play again whenever he can.

He was supposed to come home with us because it was right at the end of his school day, but he decided to ride the bus, I'm sure so that he could spend more time with all of his buddies. I'm glad he's making friends and having fun at school.

His first few encounters riding the bus haven't been the greatest, some bullies and inappropriate stuff going on. I'm proud of how good he's been at communicating his experiences with us, whether good or bad, and were really working hard at helping him with the skills he'll need to deal with all the hard things that go on. My first instinct of course was to pull him off the bus and start picking him up, but after some more thought and excellent counsel from some good friends, I thought better of that choice. I know that he needs to learn for himself how to handle these situations and me jumping in and saving him all of the time isn't going to prepare him for life very well. It's so hard for me though, not to let out my mother bear instinct, and go running in to save him. His decision to ride the bus today made me proud. He's willing to try it again, to be brave and face up to something that's hard. I talked to the bus driver and hopefully things will improve, if not we'll go from there.