THE KING'S GARDEN

Last week, Nicholas' class invited the parents to the "opening" of a restaurant. Some kids had suggested the name Burger King, but given that the menu was comprised largely of food from the earth, the name King's Garden won out.

After doing a mini scavenger hunt in his classroom with us, Nicholas and his classmates lined up and headed over to the Arena, the site of the King's Garden. Later, Kathleen and I walked in with another couple, and the dad and I spoke for several minutes. Nicholas waited patiently by the wall with the other "servers." I caught sight of an eager look in his eye, so I headed over. I found him wearing an apron he had sewn by hand that had a name tag he had made with his name spelled on it (correctly). He approached us and said, "May I show you to your seats?" Then, he walked us over to a table and sat us down.



He first told us about the menu and then used his pencil and order pad (shown above) to write down our requests. Within a few minutes, he returned with 2, make that 3, carrot muffins with white chocolate chips, 2 granolas, and 2 fruit salads. He lingered to eat with us, but he also freely moved about the Arena where the breakfast was held.

This contrasts with just one month ago. At that time, Nicholas routinely squeezed my hand more tightly whenever we saw a teacher or student he did not know at school while we walked the grounds on the days I dropped him off. Many days, there was a palpable sense of anxiousness in him. However, the King's Garden was quite different. I saw our little boy so at ease... so in his element.

At the end of the "opening," all the kids came together and sang a song. It was amazing to see these 5-7 year olds (both of the "primary" classes are mixed age classes made up of kindergartners and first-graders) singing and smiling in unison. Nicholas' solo rendition is reproduced below.



The last line of the song stills gives me goosebumps whenever I hear it because I know how true it is for our little guy.

Something great is definitely inside of him and Arbor!

ASK (ENOUGH) AND (SOMETIMES) YE SHALL RECEIVE

This weekend we went to Tacoma for the day to visit Kathleen's sister and to check out the Point Defiance Zoo once again. On our last visit, I caught a brief glimpse of one of the zoo's prized animals- an aardvark. Mr. Nicholas, however, was not so lucky. Therefore, one of our goals for this trip was to see the aardvark.



When we got to the zoo, we attempted to find the aardvark and approached two young zookeepers. They said that the aardvark had just starred in a show that we missed and that he would not be out again that day. This was despite the fact that I explained that a certain five year-old was dying to see him.

However, I was not deterred, and I was not going to be denied. Therefore, several minutes later I approached another zookeeper and explained our situation. He was more sympathetic and immediately used his walkie talkie to call the keeper in charge of the aardvark. A few minutes later he came and told us where to go to see the aardvark and mentioned that we owed him big! I thanked him and headed off with Nicholas.

We were met by one of the original young zookeepers who was taking "Tilly" (as in rototiller) out for his walk. It was an amazing sight to see, particularly given the fact that only eighteen U.S. zoos have aardvarks. Nicholas was excited, but I must confess I was even happier to see this animal.

After we parted ways with Tilly I told Nicholas that one does not always get what one wants. However, I also made it clear that one certainly would not get what one wanted if one did not ask for it! Here's to Tilly... and to perseverance!