Daddy and Mommy are Home!

Today was a day for celebration.  Last night, after the children had gone to bed and fallen asleep, Mommy returned from a LONG week of working in the ICU at the hospital.  That's why the Commander and I knew that we could sleep in this morning because Mommy would be waiting to greet the children when they woke up.  Indeed she was!  I woke up to the babbling of little Spud who was "talking" a mile a minute out in the kitchen to his mom.  Soon Sweet Pea woke up and joined the delighted reunion.

When I walked out into the kitchen, little Spud took one look at me, started wailing and skedaddled over to his mommy and grabbed her legs in a grip that said, "Oh, no, you don't.  You're not leaving me so soon."  I think he thought it was his mom's cue to head off to work and for me to take over as a poor substitute.  Not to worry, little guy!

Then it was time for Laura and the children to head off to the airport to pick up our son, returning from his two weeks away in Canada.  I don't think the kids knew quite what to do.  They were just so happy to see both of their parents home.

Little Spud stuck to his daddy like glue, even giving him a hair massage and kisses.  Sweet Pea wandered in and out of the tableau but she was moving so quickly that I couldn't capture her on film.

Of course, "Daddy" was eating up all the attention and SO happy to be reunited with his family again.  We were happy for all of them.  I can still remember the times our own kids and I stood on the pier waiting for the Commander's ship to pull into port after a long cruise and the excitement of everyone as we would finally spot our loved ones on deck.

Later in the afternoon we all went to Olive Garden to celebrate.  Little Sweet Pea was happy as a clam with the breadsticks and her own set of crayons.

Spud was just happy to have Mommy and Daddy close by.  Of course, he wasn't turning his nose up at the breadsticks either.

We'll be heading off in a few more days back to our own home (and Fall weather).  Then I have to start working quickly on plans for a little celebration for my mom's 99th birthday.  Won't be long after that when our new puppy will be arriving at our home.  Guess this babysitting has been to prepare me for the days ahead with another little baby, even though he'll be a canine baby.    For now though, I'm going to head to bed happy in the knowledge that our Texas family is back safe and sound under one roof.

Look Out Preschool! It's the "C" Team!

 It was our turn today to take the little ones to their preschool for Mother's Day Out.  I've only gone the one other time with their maternal grandpa.   But never fear.  I had their lunches packed, clothes in their bags, and figured we were prepared.  Their maternal grandma ("Nammy") dropped little Spud off on her way to work.  They've been keeping the little guy at night this week until the weekend when their mommy is off from her residency duties and their daddy returns from Canada.  (Let the rejoicing commence)  We've had Sweet Pea with us.

Last night I was brave and gave Sweet Pea a bath. It has been just about 23 years since I last bathed a child so I was not too sure I was up for the task but things went pretty well.  Although I've discovered that it is a darn side harder to get a newly-bathed child into pajamas than it is to get a dry kiddo into a pair of pjs.  Man, I thought I'd NEVER get her arms into those sleeves and out the ends.  I liberally sprayed her wet hair with the stuff that is supposed to slick it down to make the combing "tangle-free."  It worked.  Hooray!  Then I introduced Sweet Pea to my blow dryer.  I didn't want to put her to bed with wet hair.  My mother taught me that this is a sure way to give a child pneumonia.  At least it is in Minnesota.

Back to today!  We got both children fed and left them to their own devices for a few minutes while I finished getting their bags ready.  The normal squabbling was going on in the background but no one seemed to be in imminent danger so as the time to depart drew closer, I decided we'd better do one more diaper check.  I had the Commander change Spud.

"I hope I remember how to do this," he said.

"You'll learn," I retorted, and continued getting the little guy's bottle ready.

Then I took over with Sweet Pea.  Of course, she had a major stinkeroo waiting for me.

"I want my soft pillow," she wailed, as I hefted her on to the changing table.

"Sorry, you've got the hard one," I countered.

"I want all of my kitties," she whimpered.

"Have a dog," I said, trying not to breathe in the smell.

The diaper was swiftly changed and off we traipsed to the van to load up and head to the church school.  Sweet Pea was still not too sure about the fact that her kitties had been left at the house.  "Here, have Perdita," I said and gave her one of the plastic dalmatians.  Spud was keeping himself occupied with undoing the Velcro straps on his shoes in the meantime.

We arrived at the school without further incident and walked down the hallway to the kiosk where you check the children in electronically.  I had "kind-of" watched their grandpa do this the other day but hadn't paid very close attention.  I handed the special card to the Commander and he took over.  He's very good with figuring out stuff like that.

While we were studying the screen, another parent was getting impatient.  "Push this button," he said.

"Sorry," I laughed.  "We're the 'C' team today.  We're still learning the ropes."

Their check-in sheets printed out but I was concerned that no corresponding labels printed to stick on the backs of their shirts.

"That was only for the first couple of weeks," explained the parent.

Now it was time to deposit Sweet Pea in her classroom.  I found her door, alerted her teacher and turned around to usher in our girl and was greeted by the most woebegone look that I've seen in a long time.  Oh, my....I can see that this child has inherited my dramatic abilities.  With trembling lip, she slipped into the room.

It was Spud's turn.  This could be a challenge.  He was not a happy boy last school day but today he was calm and collected right up to the classroom door and then.........he lost it.  Luckily his teacher took over and whisked him into class while I deposited his bag in the proper bin and his bottle into the refrigerator.

The Commander and I climbed back into the van.  "Do you want to stop anywhere?" he asked me.

It was too early for Dairy Queen to be open so I opted to just go back home and enjoy the luxury of a shower.  "C" team, signing out.

The Cavalry Has Arrived!

The beginning of the new week, the beginning of our daughter-in-law's taxing rotation schedule, and PawPaw has arrived!  Boy, am I happy about that.  With this cold that I've been battling for about a week now, I'm so wiped out that I can barely see straight, let alone keep up with two very active toddlers.  It was so nice to be able to collapse on one end of the couch and just listen to him reading to the little ones.

Spud was particularly delighted with pointing out the "dog" in the book to his PawPaw.  If you've never seen the children's book, "Good Boy, Fergus!" by David Shannon, I'd highly recommend it.  It's a very cute story of a little West Highland Terrier dog and his owner and it charmingly captures all the quirks that Westies are known for.

It was really fun to just watch the children interacting with their grandpa.  They haven't seen him since April so they've changed a lot since that time.

After supper, one set of grandparents took little Spud to their house and we had Sweet Pea with us.  I made her a glass of her warm "chai" (it's really just warmed up 2% milk with a tiny bit of Nestle's cocoa powder added to it) and then she and PawPaw settled down to watch a short video featuring a sing-a-long with the 101 Dalmation family.  Let's see if I can get this straight...the mom is Perdita and the dad is Pongo.  I already know the words to all the songs by heart.  Sweet Pea gets on a kick and wants to watch the same video over and over again.   Then it was time to head to the bedroom, have PawPaw read three books to her and say "goodnight."

 This morning I was up bright and early, getting their lunches ready for preschool.  It's "Mother's Day Out" so it is a school morning and that means bags to pack and lunches to prepare.  It wasn't terribly hard at all getting Sweet Pea ready, fed, and dressed.  I mentioned how much easier it seemed to be handling one child rather than two to her grandpa when he showed up with Spud to take them to school.  Maybe the trick is "Divide and Conquer."  I'd give it more thought but I'd rather go take a nap.

Gearing Up for Crunchtime!

 It's the beginning of the final full week of babysitting help for my grandkids.  We're coming into the homestretch, although in my case, it's more like "gimping" into the homestretch.  So far, I've been to the emergency room with a suspected detached retina which turned out to be a posterior vitreous detachment and I've caught a bad cold from little Spud.  While he seems to be on the mend, my nose is still running like a sieve and I've been sneezing and coughing like crazy.

My daughter-in-law is starting a month of tough residency rotation duties so that she will rarely be home.  Since my son doesn't return from Canada until this coming weekend and since I'm feeling so horrible (I'm censoring myself here), I decided it was time to call in the cavalry (also known as "The Commander.")  Yes, my dear hubby is flying into Houston this afternoon.  I can hardly wait.  Laura's parents and I have also sat down and planned out our campaign strategy for surviving the next few days, figuring out who will watch the kids when throughout the days and nights.

Little Spud was up bright and early at 6:30 a.m. this morning.  So much for my quiet time with a hot cup of coffee.  I had started the dishwasher and that little bugger actually changed the washing cycle while it was running.  The tyke is strong.  I got him fed and clothed without waking up his sister until he found a book about animals.  His exuberant animal noises finally woke up his sis.

 "I'm watching you, Nana!" I heard from the end of the hallway.  Sure enough, little Sweet Pea was hunkered down with all of her animals watching Spud and I playing.

I eventually persuaded her to allow me to change her and get her dressed but, because she slept so late, her PJs and bedding were pretty wet.  Time to start some loads of wash.

Let's see, urine-soaked laundry, short nights, a head that feels like a bowling ball, a box of kleenex that has become my new best friend.....guess that's why, when I saw this picture of my son and some co-workers on a recent hike in the mountains of Canada, I felt like saying, "You get down from that mountain this instant.  Do you hear me?  You get back here.  We need you......NOW!"

We Aren't Even Out of the Driveway Yet!

Today I was supposed to take Sweet Pea and Spud to their preschool.  Since I'd never been to their preschool (and since I wasn't registered as a designated "dropper-off or picker-up" person, I first was to pick up their grandpa at the tennis courts and then we'd both head over with the kiddos.

You see, the usual arrangement is that their grandpa would take them to school when their daddy is away but today he had a tennis match so he had asked me to fill in for him.  He even loaned me their van and that was probably the first mistake.  I am pretty hopeless with other people's cars.  But he got the car seats set up and had told me that one side door had to be locked and unlocked by hand but otherwise, it should be pretty straight-forward.

Spud wearing some "garden dirt" 

This morning I got both children dressed with only one small "time-out" when Sweet Pea decided she only wanted half of herself dressed.  Both children were fed and rediapered, lunches were packed, their bags were packed with spare clothes and diapers, and I think everything was ready until I looked at the clock and realized I needed to get out the door.  Oh, man....where were their shoes?  And Mika was insisting on braids but she ended up with ponytails and was none the wiser.

Outside, I had my hands full with everyone's bags plus my purse and was fumbling for the door key and trying to keep an eye on the two children so they wouldn't head for the street.

"Spud, STAY!", I shouted.

He froze in place.  Hey, cool!  Their grandpa's set of keys had a dog whistle.  I considered trying that next if they decided to make a break for it.

The next challenge were the car seats.  Trying to get Spud into his car seat was a challenge.  It was further over in the "half seat row" and I had to try to sling him across the floor of the van and up into the seat, which wasn't making my back feel any better.  Then the straps were twisted so I had to fiddle with those and undo them until I got them right.  Spud wasn't happy but we eventually got it. I rushed over to the other side of the van where Sweet Pea patiently waited.

Hmm, I remembered that this was the side that I had to manually unlock.  Oh, no....the darn door thingy was missing and instead of a nice thick knob to pull up on, there was a little thin metal strip to grab.  My fingers are quite weak and arthritic and I really was struggling trying to get it pulled up to unlock the door.  I am hoping that both children didn't pick up on the "new vocabulary" that they might have been exposed to this morning.

Finally, I got the door open.  In the carseat she went and into the driver's seat I went.  Now I just had to release the parking brake and we could back out of the driveway and head out.  Dang!  I couldn't get the brake to release.  In my van, you just press down on the brake with your foot and then let up on it and it pops right up.  It wasn't happening here.  I looked frantically around for some lever I should pull.  I couldn't find anything.  Then I spotted something on the bottom of the dash, right about where my gas cap release is.  Hmmm, well, it had to release something.  I hoped it wouldn't pop the hood.  I pulled and yay, the brake released.  Gah!

We made it to the park and of course, I pulled into the wrong parking area (employees only), had to back up and go around, went into another parking area (wrong one), stopped a jogger to ask him where the tennis courts were and then got directions from him.  As we headed over to the courts, I saw a bicycler coming towards us, gesturing at me.  "Get out of my way," I thought.  "I'm running late."  Then I realized it was their grandfather.

We got the bike in the van, switched drivers and made it to their school in time.  Once we had both children deposited in their classrooms, Laura's dad decided we should get me registered as a designated person for them as long as we were there.

"We'll need to take your picture," the receptionist said.

"You're kidding," I replied.  "I haven't had a shower in two days and I haven't even combed my hair yet this morning."

I smiled wanly at the camera and am now duly registered and looking like an escapee from the looney bin, I am quite sure.

This visit is teaching me a lot of things.  One of them is that I can probably handle children about two hours max and then that needs to be followed by about 12-15 hours of solitude for decompression followed by retail therapy and lots of desserts.  Carrot cake, carrot cake, where art thou when I need you?

Toddler Gardening

Yesterday Laura and the children decided to do some planting in their small raised bed garden in the backyard.  Off they went with seed packets in hand and along I came with camera in hand to document the mayhem  fun.

The first few rows of seeds went in smoothly as Laura explained what she was doing to the children.  I think Sweet Pea grasped it but Spud was having more fun treating the garden as his personal sandbox.

As the planting progressed, I noticed that the children were scooping up handfuls of dirt and arranging it along the edges of the garden frame.  Then the stuffed animals were assigned "guard duty."

Soon Sweet Pea was taking big clumps out of the newly-planted areas and putting them in her little containers.  Hmmm, wonder how many seeds were remaining in the dirt.

When it was time to water our new garden, it was also time to hose down the children.  Little Spud was quite happy to put his face to the spray.

Sweet Pea brought over some of her "personal garden" to be watered.

Time to get that hose on both of the children.  Problem was that as fast as we hosed them down, they'd reach down to pick up more of the garden dirt which was getting soupier by the minute.

After a few more attempts to clean off their hands (and the rest of them) before bringing them out of the garden patch, Mom gave up and brought them over the edge and set them down for some serious hosing down.

That worked for Sweet Pea but Spud was sitting down in the mud puddles as we'd hose off his sister.  You see where this is going, don't you?  They finally had to be whisked straight out of their muddy outfits and into the house and to the bathroom where they were cleaned off in short order.

Laura and I are wondering what, if anything, will sprout before I head back home.  Even if nothing comes up, it was certainly an entertaining way to spend the afternoon.

Not Exactly How I Envisioned Things Starting

 I'm down in Texas now and ready to do "Nana babysitting" duty while my son heads off to Canada to conduct training sessions for new missionaries.  I've been taking vitamins because I KNOW that I'll need all the energy I can muster to keep up with Spud and Sweet Pea.  Jason has gone over their schedule with me and shown me where things are located, etc.  So I thought we had everything covered.  Now it was time to pose for a group picture before Daddy headed off to the airport.

Spud gave a final wave as the car headed off with his papa and I was there to document the moment on camera.

Sweet Pea had brought out her kitties to say goodbye, too, and they watched the car drive out of sight.  It was time for Nana to spring into action.  First, though, I thought I'd take advantage of having their mom there  today and not off being "Dr. Laura" so I decided to nip into the shower before the day started in earnest.

After the shower, as I was drying off, I noticed that I was seeing flashes of white light in one eye.  Yikes!  What was up with that? My opthamalogist has drilled into me every year that my eyes are prone to retinal detachment and that I should always be on the alert for things like flashes of white light.  If I should happen to experience something like that, she said I should immediately get to a retinal specialist.  Well, darn.....first of all, it's a Saturday and secondly, I'm a LONG way from home.

I finished dressing and went to find my daughter-in-law.  Oh, my goodness, I sure hated to let her know what was going on but I also didn't want to lose my eyesight.  She quickly bundled the kiddos up and off we went to the emergency room.  Wow, let me just say that this was the friendliest emergency room I've ever been in.  Faster than I could say, "I'm a coward", I was checked in and had a whole collection of bracelets for different alerts.

I was taken into a room and my family was allowed to accompany me. Sweet Pea amused herself by doing some drawing.  Spud amused himself for awhile by pinching his momma's nose.  He also discovered the TV remote and managed to press the emergency call button so Laura had to go out and tell the nurses that it was a false alarm.

Every so often, Sweet Pea would tell me, "You can do it, Nana!"  Uh, huh!  My own little cheering section.  Luckily, there wasn't much to "do."  I didn't have to be very brave.  A nurse examined me, then a nurse practitioner examined me, and finally a doctor examined me and none of them could see anything out of the ordinary.  However, none were eye doctors so there was no dilating of my eye for a more detailed examination.  I've been referred to an opthamalogist on Monday.

As we waited for my discharge papers, Spud was busy trying to figure out how the gurney's rail worked.  If we'd had a little more time there, I bet he would have done so.

After my discharge, we decided to head to McDonalds.  The kids were getting hungry and we thought they would be able to play.  I was looking particularly stylish (NOT) since I had that "wash and wear" look going and was still sporting my array of medical bracelets.  Wouldn't you know that this particular McDonalds was being renovated and the play area was temporarily closed.   Oh, well.  We ordered anyway and sat down to eat in an out-of-the-way alcove.

We'd just settled down and tucked into our fries and chicken nuggets when a mother came around the corner with a young girl in tow.  Just as she got up to us, the girl upchucked all over the floor right next to us. Oh, man!  Laura and I looked at each other.

"I can't believe this,"  I sighed.  "Jason hasn't even been gone 5 hours and I've already been to the emergency room and now we've had someone barf practically on our feet.  Surely things can only get better from here."

We picked up our food and gingerly stepped over things to find another location to eat.

Final stop before home was the Dollar Store.  Sweet Pea had earned the right to pick one prize for her potty training efforts.  We went up and down the aisles.

"This one looks like fun," she'd say.......again and again.  It was pretty funny.  It has to be hard for a little one to decide on one thing in a place like that but she did finally decide on a tool kit.

We made it safely home and Sweet Pea spent time "building" things for us before we did a little gardening.  The gardening will be a tale for another blog post.  In the meantime, I'd appreciate your prayers that things will go well on Monday at the eye doctor's visit.  I'm still having some flashes and a circular floater thing going on.  Never a dull moment, eh?

Emily Post Would Faint

Have you ever been around a toddler when they eat?  It "ain't pretty", to put it in the vernacular.  Tonight I fixed a dish of meatballs in a thickened sauce full of veggies that was to be served over rice.  Sweet Pea's mommy made up a batch of rice in the rice cooker so the rice was nice and sticky, just like rice should be.  When we sat down at the table, little Sweet Pea sat next to me, clinging to Toby the Train who ended up beside her plate while she ate.  This is definitely a "before" picture.  She LOVES rice!

Mommy gave her a little bowl of rice and she had a child-size spoon and it was all on a large Winnie-the-Pooh plate so I thought we were good to go.  Uh-huh!  When I looked over at her, she had rice stuck in her nose, all over her skirt, on the chair, and surrounding her on the floor.  (Where's a dog when you need one?)

As I continued to keep an eye on her even as I ate my own meal (which was good, by the way), she would take a handful of rice, stuff some in her mouth, follow it with a spoon of rice which she'd turn upside down as she'd look over at a distraction and then she'd try to pick it up but would be horrified when it would stick to her fingers so she'd wipe her hands on her hair and then head back to the bowl for more.

"More rice," she asked nicely.

I tried to be helpful by scooping some of the mounds of rice up that were on the chair and on her lap.  Oh-oh!  Did I mention how sticky the rice was?  Now we were both sitting there with rice on our hands.  I was NOT wiping it on my hair, however.

I offered to wipe her hands off with a handy napkin.  Nope, she wasn't going for that at all.  Okey dokey!  In the end, it seemed there was only one wise course of action.

Mommy scooped her up and took her outside to shake her off.  Some critter will be eating good in the neighborhood tonight.  Little Sweet Pea came back inside looking much more presentable.  In fact, she almost looked like she'd never had a bite of rice.

She climbed back into her chair and looked at us.

"More rice please," she said.

Tinkle, Tinkle.....What a Star!

We've been hoping that Sweet Pea would show some renewed interest in potty training while I was visiting and so we've really been talking up using the potty to her.  Her mommy has brought out the M & M dispenser and explained how she'll get one M & M if she sits on the potty and TWO if she actually does something in the potty.  We've read potty stories to her.  You'd be amazed by some of them.  One actually has different animals wearing diapers that you can flip down and examine what their various poo looks like.  Gee, the things I've been missing out on, eh?

Well, today Sweet Pea came out of the bedroom in a little dress and no diaper and decided she wanted to sit on the pot.  Mommy sat down beside her and read her story after story.  We really weren't expecting anything to happen.  I even shared my secret to success with her.....cover your ears and count to four.  It always worked for me in summer camp at least.

Lo and behold, when she stood up, she had tinkled in the potty.  We whooped and hollered like crazed people.  We clapped and sang happy "pee-pee" songs.  We decided to have a parade down to the bathroom to empty the potty into the toilet.

We let Sweet Pea do the honors of flushing everything down the drain.  Whee!  It was a moment of sheer jubilation.  Maybe this was the start of something big.

Five minutes later, Sweet Pea came up to me at the breakfast table as I was eating my Cheerios.  We were chatting and suddenly she got this horrified look on her face.  She looked down and I looked down and golly, if she wasn't tinkling right there on the floor and it was a gusher.  Mommy ran for a towel to wipe things up, I lifted our little toddler up and told her not to worry and headed back to her room and the changing table with her where we got her back in a diaper and got her wiped off.  

Success!  Sometimes it's a fleeting thing.  In the game of potty training, you win some and you lose some but I STILL think it was a red-letter day.

Brothers! What Can You Do With Them?

Today was quite entertaining watching Spud and Sweet Pea interact, although Spud was having a rough day.  I think the immunization he received yesterday finally was being felt today.  He wasn't very happy.  However, Sweet Pea was generally sunny.  I got a kick out of her "potty time" at one point.  We looked over at her and she had taken the little toy potty I had brought from home and was sitting on it, contemplating the universe.  Oh, oh....I hope she doesn't get TOO attached to this particular "potty."  We have one much better suited for her size just waiting for her to show some interest in it.

This afternoon, Sweet Pea was happily playing in one area of the living room with her cars while her brother was playing with Mommy's purse.

Spud had pulled himself up on the ottoman and was finding the purse quite fascinating.  It was keeping him relatively happy and entertained so we were happy, as well.

Occasionally he'd lay his little head down, looking like he was trying to gather his strength to play some more.  He was SO tired but he just wouldn't go down for a nap at all.

Here he is, modeling the latest in "Man-Purses."  Do you think it will take off for toddlers?

At some point, he noticed his sister's fascinating toy cars and decided that they were more exciting than a silly old purse so he crawled over to investigate.

Sweet Pea put up with it for awhile but wasn't very thrilled that he wanted to snatch cars away when they'd whiz past him.

Sweet Pea is a girl of action.  She grabbed his man-purse and threw him to the ground where she felled him with a very impressive body slam.  Not to be outdone, Spud crawled out from under her and proceeded to crawl on top of her and go for her hair.  Ooooh, street fighter!

We adults called a "detente" and peace was restored.  Sweet Pea sat back and contemplated her baby brother.  Little does she know that it won't be long before she probably won't have the upper hand if she tries to wrestle him.  We'll let her discover that all in good time.  Let's just hope it doesn't escalate into "flying body slams" in the near future or we'll have to bring out Vince McMahon out of retirement to referee.