French Canadians

A post by my cousin on FB prompted me to take another shot at figuring out the ancestry of her mother (her father and my mother are siblings; for a variety of reasons, I don't think I ever met her mother). I am making more progress this time (I love how more and more records show up in the Washington State Digital Archives if you just let a year or so go by). But I am continually amused that my uncle (her father) married a Catholic woman and the whole family is basically Catholic since then. Why would a young man raised (sort of) Mennonite marry a Catholic girl?

Probably because her family and his family were from the same part of Manitoba. Odd things happen in a rural area that is predominantly Mennonite, but the second largest group is Catholic. I suppose the next question is what winding path led those two family groups to move to Bellingham? Every time I have a question like this, I wind up learning a bunch of local history.

Thursday's Activities Include: T.'s last day, playdate, play therapy

Thursday was T.'s last day of school. While he was there very briefly (home a little after 11 a.m.), A. and I went to a local playground to have a playdate with my walking partner's kids. We got there a little early, and one of A.'s classmates from the last couple years was there, so they started playing together immediately, which created some awkward. Both A.'s were very welcoming, but R. is a little slow to warm up. That is A-OK for me (I was often the slow to warm up kid, too). R.'s older brother J. was also along for the fun, and my daughter's classmate's older brother was at the playground with a basketball (planning!), so the boys wound up playing a little pickup hoops. I _had_ thought to bring bubbles, so the kids played with those for a bit, too. All in all, a really pleasant time, and I got to chat with my walking partner. I've got my fingers crossed that we can try this again with one of the sitters, so my walking partner and I can sneak out and actually go for a walk while the kids play supervised by a highly trained and credentialed professional (sitter is a special ed aide in the district for her regular gig).

T. has been wanting to see the play therapist lately, which is nice. A. has not minded at all (and last week it worked out really well, since she had other plans anyway). We had a very nice conversation about frustration and anger that T. contributed a lot to, and seemed to get a lot out of.