I had 2 incidents with Ben that have reminded me once again that he may not always be doing as well as we think. I believe that in comparison to Daniel & Maggie, Ben is doing very well. I forget that Ben had a hard start in life, alcoholism is common in Ukraine and he spent the first six months of his life neglected and starved. He does well in school, but I forget that he has remedial reading and math every day. I think he's doing well until I see his peers doing something that is way beyond him. Still, he's so melodramatic that it's hard to tell sometimes if he's faking or if something is really bothering him.
On Wednesday night, I was talking to him about his toad and said we'd spent a fortune on crickets for him already and we'd only had him for a week. I said we're going to be broke trying to feed him. Of course, I was not taking any of this seriously until Ben started saying we have to take the toad back to the
pet store because we cannot keep him, he is costing us too much money, etc. He insisted on this for several minutes and then finished the conversation with "we can't keep him, he's costing us too much money and I'm going to end up back in an orphanage because you can't keep me". What? Where on earth did that come from? I vacillated between telling him he was being ridiculous and reassuring him that the cricket thing is nothing and he will never be in an orphanage again. Is he just being
melodramatic or is that dread at the back of his mind the whole time?
Last night, I picked him up from school and a couple of his friends wanted him to go to the library with them. One of his other friends wanted another boy to come over & play and they were waiting for his Dad to pick him up to ask if it was OK. Ben wanted to go too and everyone had said that was fine. As it was raining, I said we'd sit in the car. Ben started worrying that they would leave without him and before I knew it, he started to cry. I told him they were not going to leave without him, but he was
inconsolable and would not even leave with them. We sat in the school parking lot and he cried for 30 minutes. I could not find out what was wrong with him. Surely, this wasn't brought on just by the possibility of missing a play date. He comes up with some really melodramatic statements like "They said I could go, they didn't say they wanted me to go" which make me wonder if it's genuine. However, at the back of my mind I wonder if he's anxious about school being over and changes in the Summer. Ben is really a complicated child and even after 8 years, I still can't tell what's going on with him.
I moved all the grass that I dug up and placed it in the run off spots in the yard, particularly under the dogwood where the roots were coming through, I just hope it survives. 
Earlier in the Spring, we also remodeled the back of our existing garden area to try to stop the rain run off washing all the mulch away. We put a row of paving stones at the back, shortened the planter and planted grass. So far, it seems to be working really well. As usual, it will take us years longer to settle into the outside of our home than the inside!!!
Silly Jilly was there making balloon animals, she is really amazing, she churned them out constantly for 4 hours and there was always a line waiting. Ben got an alien which was really cool, but Maggs popped one of his legs in the first minute, so he didn't last long!!!! 
We were watching the kids wait in line and were laughing at the different methods for standing on the hot ground. Ben didn't care, he just stood there. Zachary stood on his socks and Maggie just hopped from foot to foot!!!! 
At the end of the day, we went to the Galleria to buy the kids new crocs, theirs are both well worn and they needed bigger sizes. They both opted for Cardinals crocs, that I have to admit are pretty cool. Ben was particularly impressed that they were able to donate their old ones back, they either send them to kids in Africa or grind them up, depending on how worn they are. I suspect that ours will be ground, but Ben was happy to think a child in Africa might get his.
Then, they were bobbing in a bucket for water toys which they had to transfer by mouth to another bucket. At this point, Maggie had to go inside to go to the bathroom, so Ben transferred toys to both buckets while she was gone so that they both won that too!!!! 
Finally, Ben painted Maggie's face similarly to how it was painted at Cahokia. Then he wrote "Ben is super" on her arm. She ran into the kitchen to show us and Sam & I just looked at each other with the same thought in our minds. Sam said "Doesn't that B look like a P?" Oh, yes, it did!!!!! 
Maggie painted Ben's face too and she did a spectacular job by her standards. Unfortunately, they used the water colours out of Ben's paint set and it hasn't quite washed off yet 2 days later. I keep think Maggie has a huge red mark above her eye where she banged into something, but it's just paint..... 
Unfortunately, none of the pictures taken inside came out very well, it's a pity as they would have been great to have. This is me, Prerna and my 2 current students, Janhavi (on the left) and Dawn (on the right). I refer to them as my adult children (comes from trying to explain my teaching to Ben) rather than the ones I have at home!!!!
The kids got to identify different animal pelts and to make paw prints in the sand. 
They also got to launch spears using an atlatl
Ben made an arrow head with my help (they are not easy to do), Since we weren't that successful, I bought him an arrow from the gift shop under strict instructions that it has to go on his wall and NOT be used as a weapon. 
We watched the Kahok dancers. 
We climbed Monk's Mound, the view at the top was spectacular. Ben and Maggie are somewhere on the steps, if you can spot them
And, of course, they got their faces painted
So, we cut the rope in half and put it on a lower branch. This worked much better-actually, a little too much because now they are on it all the time and the rope is already rubbing the bark away on the branch. I don't think we'll be able to keep it there as I think it will damage the tree if we don't take it down. 
As with everything, Ben decided that they had to paint it afterwards. Of course, Maggie them sat on it before the paint was dry!!! Still, it was a fun project for a beautiful Mothers Day.....
It is another great exhibit at the zoo, they are continually improving their exhibits for the animals and there isn't a better place to visit in St. Louis. It had poured with rain all Friday morning and I thought we were going to have to cancel our trip, but luckily the weather brightened up considerably in the afternoon. Although there were long lines for everything, it all went very quickly and wasn't anything like as bad as I had expected. There was plenty of space in the car park, must have been my karma that offset what happened the next day (see previous post!!). Everything was free, so we went on the carousel and the train. 
Ben & Sam went on the dinosaur ride. Ben loves it, but Maggie is absolutely terrified. We did everything at the right time, we went to see the stingrays as soon as we got there. Later on, the lines were much longer than when we went in. We got straight on the train, but I saw a long line later. The kids played in the children's garden until the zoo closed at 8, I got to watch the otters play in the water. They are still my favourite animals there....
Mum bought me one of these storks from Pier 1 while she was here, then she was so enamoured with it, that she took it home with her. We've subsequently been back to Pier 1 and we now both have two of them!!!! 
I am particularly fond of my English bluebells that are now growing in my third garden. 
Dad bought me this acer many years ago (we dug it up from our old house and moved it with us!!). It has survived much abuse and is spectacular this year.