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."