Last summer, Boppa and Grandma gave each of the older grandboys a turn to spend with just us. Karyn used to call that being "just one kid" and she only had a brother. Must be important. James was two almost 3 and all of us figured he probably wouldn't last more than a day. Since Karyn's family lives 6 hours away, it was a cosideration. Yet, on one of the exchanges, James asked in all of his adorable two year old speech, "When is James' turn?" Yesterday arrived and is James' turn. Karyn, Abigal, James and Grandma met in Sutherland, NE and Grandma picked up a traveling companion.
Karyn told me that James took his nap on the way over. He was trying to talk to me from the back seat but with road noise, I couldn't quite hear him. We stopped in Ogallala to get a movie at Walmart. I did think to bring my computer for such a time as this but couldn't find any kid friendly movies at home. James wanted to the Minion one. I tried to talk him into others but that is the one he wanted. It was $5 - away we went. As we were leaving the store, James used his super powers to open the door. It Worked! The movie DVD didn't though; for $5 I paid for about 4 commercials and 3 very, very, very short Minion movies. The cover called them Mini movies - should've been called nanosecond movies. We stopped in Oshkosh and they were having a rental movie sale. I found Shaun the Sheep for $10 and kepts on going.
James kept asking when we would get to grandma's house. I told him we'd be there before dark. Storm clouds were gathering on the horizon and darkening the sun. He was getting impatient and concerned! Still and all he was a good little traveler. He was pretty excited when we got to grandma's house. He ran up to the front door and rang the door bell. Boppa answered with Charlie right behind him. I think James greeted Charlie first, after all Charlie is eye level, then Boppa.
James headed right to the club house under the stairs and looked for the blower. We also bought balloons in Walmart. He saw the kit - balloons and a blower. I bought the balloons and told him I had the blower. We finally found it. That clubhouse is too short for me but grandmas do crazy things for grandsons. The next hour was spent blowing up balloons, playing baseball with balloons, letting balloons be rockets. Then off to the park, then dinner. Macaroni and cheese.....from a box....don't judge me. He ate 2 bowls and saved a little for Boppa and me.
Bathtime came next. He knows the routine but doesn't like getting his head shampooed. Did it anyway. He got over it. Changed into his Superman shirt and then I set up a cot for him by our bed. I figured he wouldn't sleep by himself upstairs and I'm getting used to the downstairs bed. He liked the astronaut sleeping bag and we were down for the count. Only we weren't. Snuggles, down for the count, put him back into bed. Only he still wasn't asleep. He wanted to sleep upstairs. He wanted a light on, not that light, the night light on the table, now turn on the fan, sleep upstairs. I almost gave up but he finally, really, did fall asleep and I put him back in the cot. By that time I was ready for bed, too.
5:30 am. He was staring at me from the cot when I happened to wake up enough to look at the time. Morning cuddles, then it was "let's go play!" Yawn. We woke up the balloons on the couch, we woke up the fire truck and the race car. We played with puzzles. "I did it!" He crowed. Breakfast was pancakes. He wanted to be the poor helper. Took me a second......he wanted to be pour helper and a Mickey Mouse pancake, and a baby Micky Mouse pancake, with chocolate chips. He ate it all and a few more besides plus apple slices and banana bread and strawberries.
He watched some TV, played with the barn. Said some darling cute things that I wanted to write down and should have. He loves me, he loves my house but he won't give me kisses! What's up with that? And he keeps blowing up balloons. I think we have 20 now and he can count them all.
Playdough was the next quiet activity. We had to make it. This time when he wanted to be my pour helper, I knew what he wanted. I got some toys out of the toy box that I thought would make some fun designs. He was using the pieces from a counting puzzle. When he pushed down on it in the playdough, it made pegs. Pretty soon he was adding his pegs. Then he was subtracting his pegs so we could make the numbers in the playdough. I kind of wished I had the wisdom when I was a young mother to play better with my children and just enjoy the discovering they do. I think I was too worried about having the perfect children that I forgot to enjoy them. At least I get to do this with my granchildren. So much fun. James helped me spell his name with playdough and Grama with playdough. Enough of that - let go play at the park!
The new skill level at the park is to climb the rope ladder. He has that down pat. He doesn't have going poop before he goes to the park down pat though. We raced back.
Lunch - he ate peanut butter and jelly with a side of beans. Another TV show and off for a nap. He didn't want to do that but I stayed with him. I had pulled down the shades. He got on his cot, then kept looking over to me and carefully pushed the shades back up. He thought he was being so sneaky. He finally crawled onto bed with me and we both napped ... his was longer.
We took a trip to GGma's for root beer floats. As soon as we pulled in, James knew where we were. He recognized her twirly ballon. He remembered the piano room, and playing Sorry the last time we were there. We went to the piano room and he played Rocket ship on the piano for me. I played a song. We found a 60 piece puzzle and went back to Ggma's apartment. Oh, the root beer floats were enjoyed by all. James went to the bathroom and discovered Ggma's hand mirror. He said, "I don't look fancy" He found a comb and made himself fancy. He took the mirror to Ggma and the comb and made her fancy, too. He tried to make me fancy. No luck.
We are at home. Blowing up more balloons, eating more mac and cheese, figuring out puzzles and having a glorious time. It hasn't been too hard other than I have been his all day playmate and it makes me wonder how a mother of four gets anything done!
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