Graduations

Aren't they all adorable? I took a picture of Joseph as he waited, but then he turned around and posed and said, take another one, Mom! Then he said, "now you can put that one on the internet!" His teacher gave him the award for best writer, because she said that he had stories to tell and his stories always sounded just like him talking with all the "oof's" and "oh my's" in them!
On the last day of school I had to take him into the clinic, though. He has a large lump in the back of his neck that won't go away. He was given some antibiotics and the doctor said he would need some blood to check the WBC's, etc. I turned to Joseph and told him, "baby (my last two are both still baby to me) they are going to have to take some blood." He started to cry and I told him that it wouldn't be that bad, that he would only feel it a little. But then he surprised me by saying, "am I going to die, now?'' I thought he must have figured out that I was worried about it being cancerous, but no, it was all about the blood, because "Sam said if you loose this much blood you die." (He held his hands out to show how much blood he ment.) I explained that it would take more than that to kill him and then that they were only going to take a very little. He was very brave from then on out. I turned his head and talked to him like my mommy did for me the first time I had my blood taken (well, OK, it was their second attempt, but that is a horror story for another day!) and he did great.
Joseph also just graduated to a big kid swimmer. He wanted so badly to go off the diving board with all the older children at a friend recent swimming party that he took a little rest from swimming and then found me to tell me he was ready to take the test. I really didn't think he could make it, but he did. He swam the whole (short) length of the pool for the lifeguard and then got to use the diving board and the water slide! I was so proud of him!!