From Footsie to Fog

It was just a few days ago that I was enjoying the balmy breezes of Houston, Texas AND life with the grandkids.  Now I'm back in Pennsylvania and freezing!  It's cold up here.

When I woke up the first morning after my return home, I rolled over and said to the Commander, "Do you hear that?"

"What?" he said.

"My point exactly," I replied.  "It's silent as can be.  There are no sounds of children."   In fact, all we could hear were our bones creaking as we moved in the bed.

Now it seems strange to relax in a chair and put my feet up without a little one coming over and either using my legs as a jungle gym or pulling themselves up by grabbing my feet.

Today I had to go to the Army clinic next town over to pick up a prescription.  As I drove up to the gate, I rolled down my window and stuck my ID out to show the guard.

"Um, don't you have a military ID," he asked me.

"What?  What did I give you?" I asked in confusion.

"Your driver's license," he said.

"Oh, my goodness.  Yes, of course," I stammered as I rummaged through my purse.   I pulled out my military ID and handed him the proper identification.

"Sorry about that," I laughed.  "I've been out of town for 3 weeks helping to watch my grandchildren and I'm a little out of it at the moment.  That's what watching toddlers for 3 weeks will do to your brain."

He laughed.  "Don't feel bad," he said.  "The other day a lady handed me her Visa card.  And I had another lady who just handed me her purse and said, 'Here, pick one.'  Of course, she WAS about seventy."

He handed me back my ID and I was on my way.  Hey, at least I didn't insist that he call me "Thomas the Train" or "Diesel 10."

I wonder how the grandkids would have handled it?

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.

What Was in That Shot?

Spud went to the doctor today to get his next scheduled pediatric immunization.  I vaguely remember my children being miserable after getting their shots so I was expecting the worst when he'd return home.  Wow, was I in for a surprise.

If I hadn't known better, I'd have guessed that the shot had been pure adrenaline.  That boy was pumped.  Tonight, instead of winding down, this is how he was playing.

He grabbed a horse out of a puzzle and then crawled over to a chair and pulled himself up to a standing position. He looked over at Mommy and squealed to get her attention.

He got a response and squealed some more.

He banged the horse on the chair and squealed and shrieked with delight, checking to see if Nana was watching, too.

He was a wild man.  Spud was on a roll and the gleeful shrieks and squeals continued

                                            "I'm unstoppable, Nana, hear me roar!"

He took a breath and chewed on his horse for a bit.  Then he chewed on the arm of the chair.

"Huh?  What's that?  Do you REALLY think I am ready to be quiet?

"Stop right there, Nana!  This boy is just gathering more steam."

"Wheeeeeeeeeee!   Oh, oh.....getting a little whoozy here.  Bring out the oxygen, Nana."

It might be a LONG night!

Einstein, We Need You!

Day 11 with the grandkids and we had a pretty good day.  I actually changed some diapers and even got Sweet Pea dressed.  By now, I've become adept at making "Chai Cuppies" for her, too.

After breakfast and some story time, we took a break to watch some Baby Einstein DVDs.  Sweet Pea insisted that she wanted the "Lady Bug" one.  Oh, oh......I had NO idea which of the 10 or so DVDs had a lady bug in it.  I would read off the titles to her and she would insist, "No....the lady bug one, Nana!"  And she was getting more upset by the minute.  In the meantime, her momma was nursing baby brother in another room, hoping to get him to go down for a nap.  I didn't want to disturb them to ask which was the bug DVD so I tried to reason with her.  She wasn't buying it.  Just when I thought she was going to go storming into the  bedroom to find her momma, Mom arrived to save the day.  I now know exactly which DVD has the lady bug in it.

 Boy, do I ever know which one has the lady bug.  We watched it several times.  If you've ever watched a child's movie with a toddler, you know that you don't just sit idly by.  You have to be an active watcher.  I had to provide the appropriate responses and commentary throughout.  Things like, "Oh, look...there's that horse.  What's he doing now?  Is he trying to pretend he's a pig? "

In the meantime, little Spud who is now crawling like a pro, is into everything!  That boy can really scoot!  He particularly enjoyed a package of toilet paper that I thought was pretty harmless until I realized that he was biting the packaging and managing to get bits of the wrapper.  Whoops!

He is fearless, too.  He dive bombs off the couch and you have to be quick to catch him.  He crawls up your legs and down your legs.  He goes into the laundry basket. Tonight, when Laura was putting the children into their pajamas, we turned around for just a second and he somehow grabbed an air freshener cone and was chomping on that.  Momma fished the freshener out of his mouth but we could have walked him through the house and waved him around and probably not had to use an air freshener for a week or so.

I tried to help with Spud's lunch today and got quite a kick out of his expressions when he'd throw food or cups on the floor and then look at me with this expression of "What?  You think I did that?"

Sweet Pea was working on some stamping art work and we glanced over at her and realized that she was not only stamping her page but had also stamped the end of her nose and around her mouth.  Whoops!

No. 1 Son spent most of the day putting up a collapsible stairs into the garage attic.  He did a great job.  He's sure learning quickly that a homeowner's work is never done.

Tonight Laura tried a new method of getting Sweet Pea to go to bed.  She's trying to train her to go to bed in her own bed and sleep through the night.  After some stories and cuddling, she told Sweet Pea that she had to stay in her own bedroom but she could stay up and play, if she wanted to.  The nightlight went on and the hysterics started.  Oh, the tears and the pleading.

At one point, little Spud crawled down the hall and into his sister's room.  I snuck down the hall and peeked into her room.  Spud and his sister were sitting on the floor by her nightlight.  She was telling him which toys he could NOT play with.  He looked at her and then leaned over and pulled the nightlight out of its socket.  Waaaah!  The crying commenced all over again.  I ducked in, re-installed the nightlight, took Spud back to his mom and then we heard  this plaintive cry over and over....."I would LOVE for Luke to come here."

I went into her room and gave her a cup of water and resisted her pleas to read to her or to sit outside her door.  Instead I suggested that she pick out some books and read them to her stuffed animals, which I arranged in a row under the nightlight.  I told her that I'd be just down the hall.  Well, that worked for a good ten minutes as we listened to her "reading" to her animals.  Then the crying started up again.  Finally Momma and Spud went off to the bedroom across the hall from Sweet Pea and eventually she fell asleep.

I think that bedtime training and potty training must be like childbirth.  It's something that parents remember only in part.  And so I say to myself, "Steady, old girl, steady!  You've got 60+ years of experience over a toddler.  Surely you can outsmart a two-year-old."

The Horrible, Rotten, No-Good Day!

Today was quite the day.  Both of the kidlets were cranky and out-of-sorts.  Little Sweet Pea was NOT living up to her name.  Today she was more like a "sour pickle."  Almost everything we suggested got a negative response or a whiny response or a crying response.  Nothing seemed able to please her.  At one point I asked her, "Is this opposite day?  Do your 'no's' mean 'yes'?"  "NO!" she screamed.  Okey-dokey!

Mommy had a little more luck on occasion with her "tickle-hand" therapy.  She'd say, "Here comes Mr. Hand-Man and he's going to try to figure out where those whines are coming from."  Soon Sweet Pea would be giggling.  Unfortunately, it wouldn't last long.

Spud would take up the chorus where his sister would leave off so at one point Laura took them both out to the backyard with her while she hung up clothes.  Little Spud got to sit in the playpen outside.  I had to snap some pictures of him.  It looked like he was "doing time" in the pen.  Ha!

He rallied enough to give Nana a big smile.  The carrot he was chomping on could have also had something to do with his improved mood.  That boy likes to eat.

Speaking of eating, I thought you might enjoy this little video I shot of mealtime tonight.  You'll hear Sweet Pea in the background fussing.  Mommy was "counting down" until time-out and Sweet Pea was correcting her on the count (adjusting it more to her liking).  I was trying to get Spud to say "Nana" and Sweet Pea again had to throw in her two cents.  Like I said,....nothing was pleasing her today.

Bless her heart, Laura's mom brought over ice cream sundaes for the grownups later this evening after the children were in bed.  They were such a welcome treat after the day we had.  Here's the clincher....
No. 1 son and I have kidlet duty tomorrow without Mommy in the morning while she heads off to the hospital to prepare for the 2nd year of her medical residency.  Let's hope she doesn't come home to find a white flag flying at the front door and all of us in a frazzled mess.  I hope they got it out of their system today.  One can hope, eh?

The Great Bed Caper

Jason had told me several days ago that he was picking up a King-sized bed from a friend of the family and would be swapping out the current bed in my guest bedroom for the new bed.  I had forgotten about it since I was quite happy with the one that was in there.  Well, tonight THIS suddenly appeared after supper.  It was BIG!

Jason, his brother-in-law, and his mother-in-law wrestled the mattress and box springs into the house.  Then there was a little creative juggling back and forth as Jason took pictures of the old bed for Craig's List before disassembling it and maneuvering the new bed into place, again with the help of family.  Laura helped him set up the frame and then he called in the rest of the crew to bring in the mattress and box springs into the room.

Wow, it's gigantic!  I told Laura to hop up on there to give us some perspective of how much room there was on that bed.  It's just little old me right now in the room so I'm going to have lots of room.  I told Laura that if I took up all that space, I definitely needed to go on a MAJOR diet.....maybe even have my stomach stapled.

We had some more fun posing for the blog pics and even Elizabeth, the bear had to get in the pictures.  I don't think she'll have to worry about getting squashed in this bed.  Guess there's nothing left for me to do tonight be put my GPS tracker on and head off to the bed.  If I get lost in it, hopefully I can send off a beacon and they can locate me in the morning.  Goodnight, All!

Fevers, Doors, and Distractions

Day Eight with the grandkids and it started off with me feeling guilty for sleeping in.  I woke to the dulcet sounds of stereo fussing and when I looked at my clock it was almost 8:45 a.m.  Oh, oh....time to rally the troops and give Momma some help.

When I got out to the kitchen, Spud and Sweet Pea were both being a little cranky so we all pitched in and cheered them up.  Soon there were smiles and pretend games to play and blocks to throw and all was right in the world once again.

Things were going well enough later in the morning that Laura and I headed off to the mall with the kidlets so that I could take my iPad to the Apple store to have the genius squad (or whatever they are called) take a look at it to see why it tends to discharge so quickly.  Laura was going to see about getting a new phone while I was occupied with Apple.  MY problem didn't take long to diagnose.  I had all sorts of programs open on the iPad (which I was NOT aware of) thanks to the latest ability of these devices to multitask between apps.  I had never known how to go from one app to the other without closing one app (so I thought) and then opening the other.  Turns out I was NOT closing them and they had been running in the background all this time.  I was thrilled to find out how to switch back and forth AND how to now close these apps both on my iPad and my iPhone.

Mission accomplished!  I headed over to join Laura and found her deep in her phone transaction.  Little Sweet Pea was getting fussy and Laura had her hands full with Spud, too so I took over Sweet Pea's care.  While Mom got her OWN new iPhone, I showed Sweet Pea how you could switch the camera on MY iPhone to reverse to see yourself.  She was really tickled and I snapped some pics of her delight.

When the new phone was all set up and paperwork signed, we all headed over to the Food Court.  That was when disaster struck.  Sweet Pea started feeling horrible.  She had a total meltdown and neither Chick-Fil-A nuggets nor Mom nor Nana could help.  Spud added his fussiness to the mix and soon it was clear that little Sweet Pea needed to get home.  Her head was hurting and she was really feeling hot.    It's a horrible feeling to see a little one suffering and being inconsolable and not know how to help them other than to just be there for them.  I sat beside her once we got home and watched Baby Einstein  with her and Momma sat with her when I wasn't who she wanted and between all of us, she finally started to feel better later in the afternoon.

In the meantime, No. 1 son had taped up his Craig's List find doors and was painting them.  These will be installed inside to close off his study.

He got both of these French doors for a very good price on Craig's List and a friend is going to help him install them once they are painted and ready to go.

They are already looking much nicer with a coat of fresh paint on them and another coat scheduled to be applied once this coat dries.

'Nammy (Grandma #2) arrived around suppertime with a very welcome meal of brisket and chicken and that, coupled with the pumpkin muffins that Laura had made in the afternoon, had us all feeling much improved.

I played "Cows" with little Spud and then taught the kidlets an Indian drumming/war hoop song for more rain  (although Sweet Pea wasn't too sure what in the world I was doing).

We ended the day with lots of books on the iPad.  Sweet Pea was insistent that we read certain books over and over (if I "pat the bunny" one more time tonight, I'll probably be tempted to give him a good, swift kick instead).  Laura and I looked at each other at one point and said, "What time is it?  It feels like it's 10 p.m."
It wasn't even 7 p.m. yet.  I thought to myself, "It has to be 10 p.m. somewhere.  Bedtime for Bonzo!"  I think we'll sleep well tonight.......if the kidlets will let us.  If I was a betting Nana, I don't think I'd take that to the bank.