a day with my boy......

It is very rare that I get to spend a day with just one of my boys alone, but today was one of those lucky days! Sam was invited to a birthday party that lasted most of the day so it was just Austen and me for the afternoon.

His day started out a bit rough. He has a big solo sax competition coming up next Saturday and today was the second time he has gotten to practice with his accompanist and he had a tough time during parts of his song. He is playing quite a long piece (7 minutes) and it is also quite challenging-- this is a good thing as it is pushing him to grow in his musical ability, but tough all the same. He worked through it though, and persevered through the stress, but I could see his anxiety building at times--that mom knowing her kid thing kicked in! His accompanist is a great lady and she will be able to hold things together even if he messes his part up a bit--she was very sweet and encouraging to Aus and me--(I think she could sense my parent nerves kicking into overdrive too!)

After his lesson, we had lunch and chatted while he played guitar hero on the wii and then we went to a small little historical museum together. He was given an assignment to visit a museum and critique an exhibit or visit an online exhibit--of course if you actually visit a museum you get 10 extra credit points......sigh.....public schools for ya! So, off we went and he actually asked me to come in with him--I had secret plans of visiting the library next door for a bit, but how could I turn down that kind of invitation? We had a nice time browsing and talking and on the way home I let him drive a bit--(in the neighborhood by our street)--he officially has his permit now, as of last Tuesday. Now we get the begging and pleading every time we talk about going anywhere. Oh, of course, the drive home included a stop off at the Starbucks drive through. We needed some refreshment--plus we were close to dad's mail route so we had to take him a hot chai!
When we got home--this site.... greeted us and cracked me up! Our cats barely acknowledge each other-even though we got them both at the same time-(at about 6 weeks of age) and they are from the same litter. The big one on the back of the chair used to spend most of his time hiding in my bedroom but has become much more social and creative in finding sleeping spots. His other new favorite spot we find him lounging on is our dining room table. That is not a favorite site for me to see...yuck! Maybe getting shoed off so often caused him to discover the back of the chair?