On Saturday Tina and I took Hui-Hui to Whatcom Hills Waldorf School's Holiday Faire. This is the first time in eight years that we have not been parents of students at the school. It's funny how excited the two of us were. We have gone to this event since Cam was three, long before we were a part of the school community. Now we were returning as alumni parents and we were anxious to show Hui-Hui all the cool things! We have many good friends at the school we have not seen since our trip to China and we were excited about having them meet Hui-Hui for the first time.
Tina has brought Hui-Hui to the school a couple times before to visit the Roots & Wings store so this was not his first time there. Still, he seemed very apprehensive when we got there. Maybe we were too eager. We rushed to the Gnome Village and got in line.
We have been very cautious about taking Hui-Hui out very much. He goes to the store with us, and has been to some of the boys music events. These have included not only orchestra concerts, but brief visits to football half-time shows as well. However, visits to large social settings have been rare for these first two months. The few we have attended though have not been a problem for him. But this time he was not too sure about what was going on, and was very clingy. He wouldn't let Tina put him down, and was not interested in meeting Pocket-Man or digging for crystals in the Gnome Village. So we decided to slow down and break for lunch. We went to the "Wooden Spoon" cafe they host in Alia Hall and found a table. The place was packed and there was live music playing. We bought our lunch and had brought along custom Hui-Hui chow we knew he would eat.
Somehow, the noise and chaos of this room seemed to be just what he needed. After he ate, he got down from the table and started to wander in gradual circles away from us. He moved among the other tables then looped back to us as we visited with friends. Eventually he worked his way out of the hall and saw the swings on the upper playground; suddenly he seemed to be in his element. He wanted to swing and run across the snow-dusted courtyard.
We visited with old friends while he tugged on us to follow him. We wandered through the craft vendor displays at the rate of a distracted parent of a toddler - glancing briefly at treasures then chasing off after our little charge. It felt right. We whacked his schedule we have worked so hard to maintain, but it was a good thing.
The School Courtyard
Entrance to Gnome Village
A little leery of Gnomes
In The Gnomes Crystal Mine
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