Tentative Tickles

The last two times that we've taken little Sweet Pea and Spud to visit their Great-Grandmother in the nursing home, Sweet Pea has been very shy and quite hesitant to approach "Grandma Toots."  That's understandable since I doubt she's ever seen anyone as old or even someone in a wheelchair and she only gets to see her once or twice a year.  But on each visit, there have been little tentative steps to establish a relationship.

Today when we visited, we all went down to the lounge and at first, Mika entertained us all by playing "Boo" with her brother.

She wasn't quite sure what to make of it when "Spud" ambushed her at one point and I'm not sure that he knew what to make of it either but he seemed to be game for the fun.

When we suggested that Sweet Pea try to "scare" Grandma Toots by playing "Boo" with her, she thought it over and then (with a few appropriate dramatic shrieks from Grandma) decided it might be fun.

She leaned over and said "Boo" and Mom yelped and shivered (a performance worthy of an Oscar, I can assure you).

Sweet Pea got bolder and came over to the wheelchair and tickled Grandma Toots' leg.  "Aaaah, oooh," trilled her great-grandmother.

"I think Grandma Toots fell asleep," I said.  "Why don't you try tickling her knee and see if you can wake her up?"

Sweet Pea gave a little tickle and Mom giggled, threw up her hands and said, "Whee!"

Little Spud wasn't saying "Whee" later when we sat him on Grandma Toots' lap.  He quickly made his displeasure known.

"Who in the world are you?" he seemed to be thinking, "And what did you do with my mommy?"

We finished up our visit by singing Christmas carols acapella and at some point we looked over and saw that  Mom had nodded off.  I guess she'd had quite enough excitement for one day.  Who knows?  Maybe on our next visit, Sweet Pea will be brave enough to hitch a ride on Grandma Toots' wheelchair.