Day 19 Hockey, Putt Putt, and Laser Tag

Day 19 - Wow 19 days into this journey already.  It seems like just yesterday we were picking him up at the airport and we had all the nervous butterflies in our stomach about how we were going to even communicate with him.  Its amazing what a few days will do.  We can now have some simple conversations with him with him understanding what we are saying.  This morning I was informed that our kitchen was transformed into a hockey arena.

Linda and the kids met me for lunch.  Linda brought him in to see my office.  He did not understand where they were until he saw my car in the parking lot.  He got the grand tour of our Corporate Headquarters, and 3 minutes later we were on our way to McDonalds.  This was our first trip to McDonalds since he has been here.  While we were eating he called me Dad for the first time since he has been here.  At this point I can not even tell you what the context was that he used it in.  When I heard him utter that word it went straight to my heart.

After lunch, I was informed that the boys took to the ice, I mean linoleum for another hockey game.  This time they had a couple of cheerleaders.  The girls acted as the cheerleaders for them.  Caden was at a bit of a disadvantage since he has not played as much hockey.

This evening we went to Isaak's Family Fun.  Wow,that was a ton of fun for all.  If you have never been and you are in the Mattoon, IL area i would suggest it.  Laser Tag and Glow in the dark putt putt, with a climber area for the little kids.  We had 5 adults and 4 kids playing laser tag.  It is amazing how your adrenaline starts to kick in and your senses are heightened when you are in a dark room trying to shoot other people with your laser gun!  I will say that he is quite the sneaky boy.  There were at least 3 games that I can remember that he was the last man standing for his team and we had to search the room for him.  Once again this evening we saw his competitive nature come through.  There was one game that came down to just the two of us, and he got me down to 1 life left, however i was able to redeem myself of my loss last night at the bowling alley with a big win this evening!

Another great day!  Tomorrow we are off to the Illini - Ohio State game with the boys.  He knows we are going to see a basketball game but I'm not sure he knows that there are going to be over 10,000 people there.