She's a Grand Old Dame!

 Mom turns 99-years-old tomorrow so we had a little Open House for her today at the nursing home.  She was all dressed and ready to be wheeled down to the lounge when we got there and even had a tiara on.  We had a lot of fun with that.  At one point, some of the nurses that came in agreed with us that she should be declared the "Queen Mum" of the nursing home.  Mom gave us all an imperial wave and some of the ladies there even curtsied.

 My brother flew in from Michigan for the weekend so we've been over to the home several days already.  Yesterday we read some more of the farm girl story that I've been reading to her.  It was all about ironing before they had steam irons (you had to sprinkle your clothes with water and then roll them up to await ironing) and washing with the old wringer washers.  We ALL remembered those times and chuckled over the memories.

John tried to get a picture of the two of them with his cellphone and Mom gave us all a regal smile.  Unfortunately she couldn't see the pictures because of her eyesight but we will enjoy them as documentation of a memorable time.

Besides the nurses and staff that dropped in to say "hi" to Mom and have some food and cake, good friends Linda and Vince Joslin stopped in for a visit as well.  Their little dog Schatze is a favorite of Mom's and she always enjoys a visit from them.

Then granddaughter Laura and husband Jason arrived up from Maryland to add to the fun.  Mom was certainly glad to see them as well.  I think my brother was delighted to have the chance to visit with Jason because both of them are hunters and gun enthusiasts and enjoy talking "shop" when they get together.

While the men discussed archery bows and hunting blinds, Laura brightened her grandmother's day, helping her to open presents and even sing some songs.

You can't hear Mom singing very well in this little clip but listen to the end when she rallies for a "BIG" finale. She still loves to sing.

Finally, while Mom was dozing off, we enjoyed looking at the lovely fish in the freshwater tank.  They had some very unusual fish, including a freshwater mantis.  Vince knew the names of many of them so we had fun trying to spot them and identify them all.

Then it was time to take Mom back to her room for a nap and head back to our house.  We got quite a good laugh when we saw Jason and Laura's new truck parked next to the Commander's Ford Escape.  My, my....I always thought the Escape was a big car but next to the truck, it looked like a puny "little brother."

Happy birthday, Mom!  One more year and you'll make it on the Smuckers jelly jar on the Today Show.  Hip Hip Hooray for a grand old dame!

Imagination is a Wonderful Thing

It's our last day with the little ones before heading home.  Hard to believe in some ways that it has been three weeks. In other ways, I'm very aware that it has been three weeks.  Ha!  Little Sweet Pea popped into our bedroom this morning and we watched a "Thomas the Train Engine" video on my Kindle Fire together courtesy of Netflix.  Ah, technology...it's a wonderful thing.

I guess watching the Thomas video inspired her to pull out her various train engines and set up her OWN "Isle of Sodor."  Mommy helped by finding a play rug with tracks and villages and other landmarks.

The trains were busily moving from one end of the play-mat to the other as our little engineer talked to herself happily.  I caught strains of "chugga chugga"  and "clickety-clack" and she was very happily directing all of the different engines until.....

Godzilla, in the form of little Spud, tramped right through the middle of the island, scattering engines and waving a school bus ominously in his hand.

That didn't go over real well with big sister so we stepped in to negotiate a detente which held for just a few minutes before it was time to remove and distract Spud.

First he got distracted by his daddy and PawPaw in discussion in the office.  He had his little face plastered up against the glass and would occasionally bang on the panes, hoping to be let into the inner sanctum.

Then he got distracted by lunch, which contrary to this picture, was NOT his toes but he had fun pretending to eat his feet anyway.

Spud was in a much better mood after filling up on lunch and then he was ready for a new adventure which was soon taking shape.

Mommy pulled out some brown paper and some painter's tape and taped the paper on the floor.  Then out came the crayons and Sweet Pea and Mommy started drawing houses, dog houses, roads, tracks, and all sorts of extra places for the trains to visit.  What a lot of fun to have a customized play map for the cars and trains!

And now we're getting ready for supper.  Jason is out grilling salmon, Laura is fixing vegetables with two suddenly cranky kids (I used to call this the "witching hour" with MY kids - when the children would reach a very ornery meltdown point).  Time to sign off and make myself useful.

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?

It's Skype Time with Daddy!

Hey, it's Daddy!  That seems to be what Spud is saying when our son Skyped from Canada yesterday.  Little Spud was so happy to see his Daddy, even if it was on the "small screen."

Sweet Pea was happy, too and wandered over numerous times to chat with her papa.  In the meantime, the newness of seeing Daddy seemed to have worn off on Spud so he was starting to entertain himself with his mama's iPhone.

"Daddy, you wouldn't believe all the things these women are making me do around here.  If I'm not having to pick up my Cheerios, I'm getting 'time-outs' for trying to play with Sis's kitties.  It's tough being the only man in the house.  Come home soon."

"Hmmm, maybe I'll just purchase a ticket online to bring him home sooner.  Now what was that password?"

"Daddy, Daddy....I think I can book you on the red-eye special.  How fast can you get to the airport?"

"But Daddy....I didn't know there was a difference between Dubai and Denver.  I can't spell yet.  Are they far apart?  Maybe you can catch a connecting flight on to our house?

"Don't worry, Daddy.....we're going to hide the iPhone and the credit cards from Spud from now on.  But we sure do miss 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.