I had hoped the days wouldn't run together but they seem to. It has been non-stop playing or watching sumpin on TV. His favorite is Wonder Pets. His mom hates Wonder Pets she told me yesterday. Karyn, do you remember all those times you told me you hated me? Revenge can be sweet. (I kinda of like Wonder Pets, the tunes are getting annoying though)
James has been pretty compliant about putting his toys back in the clubhouse when he is done with them. He doesn't really like staying in the clubhouse but he likes getting his toys out of there and putting them back. He makes me smile with his sweet voice and the lilt he has at the end of his sentences when he is hoping I'll do something with him. Being called Grandma, grandma, grandma at the beginning of each sentence is wearing thin, though.
This boys wakes up at 5:30 every morning! Sunday morning he was at the table playing with playdoh. I told him it wasn't happening for me until I had coffee! He ate cereal for breakfast but I didn't have enough kid kinds, we mixed 3 different kinds up. One box had cereal with strawberried on it. He had to have strawberries. Karyn had given me some strawberries for his snack in the car. With some careful carving I found enough that was still good. Cereal went down like a charm.
His Sunday shirt was wrinkled. I have a little iron and little ironing board set up. While I ironed his shirt he "ironed" his pants. He was a fancy looking boy by the time we left.
No arguments about church and Sunday School. I forgot to put together the Sunday back of water, treats, books, and colors. Church had the colors and the Handy Dandy Notebook (from Blues Clues.) He drew a rocket ship and sent it flying toward the sky, he almost put out Ggma's eye with that one. She didn't snap. I was proud of her and moved James on the other side of me. He was kind of wiggly but kept fairly quiet. He raced up to hear Pastor's Children message and did a great job sitting still up there.
After church, he got his treat in the fellowship hall. He raced out to play on the playground, finished his snack and WE went to Sunday School. I stayed with him. He did a pretty good job there, too, but I know the Sunday School teacher who was a sub for the class was glad I was there. Tough class, 3 kids but ages 3, 5, and 6. James kept up with some help and letting him do his own thing with the instructions. Choose your battles.
In the afternoon, we went to Boppa's work and took him a picnic. Boppa's work is the property we bought outside of town. The quonset hut has a half court basketball court in it. James has remembered this and wanted to play basketball. Boppa put up a basket that was about his height so he was making some nice shots. Then he wanted to sit on the ATV, go into the camper, drive the boat, sit on the tractor, dig dirt, poop in the dirt (he actually did that part very well - I however, was scrambling for wiping material) cover the poop with the dirt, watched Charlie play with a mouse, and have a picnic.
With all of that, naptime wasn't too much of a battle. After naptime, the Legos came out. He built a race car, I just played and let the Legos decide what they wanted to be. It was kind of fun. Spaghetti for supper, watching sumpin, and bedtime in there eventually.
No snuggles Monday morning but he stayed in bed until 6:07. He wanted to watch sumpin'. I found Thomas the Train - the Best of James. He DID not want to watch this but soon he was and ate all the marshmallows out of his Star Wars cereal that we bought yesterday. He soon wanted to play but I did the first you have to eat your cereal then I will play routine. He was being stubborn but no melt downs. While he was playing without me, I had some quiet time, and got a few things started. I don't think I'll ever get much done completely while he is around. Eventually he went back and ate his cereal. He cannot wait until he is 4! 4 means he gets to take Tae Kwon Doh. So I started with eat 3 bites because you are 3. Eat 4 bites because then you can take Tae Kwon Doh. I found something special for each age - 5 - Kindergarten, 6 - baseball, 7 - basketball, 8 - riding his bike, 9 - plays the piano, 10 - stay with Uncle Dave all by himself. He loved this and played it until his cereal was eaten up.
During my time of quiet, I made a batch of brownies and we took them over to Ggma's for a coffee break. I brought his Legos and race cars. We had a brownie, coffee or chocolate milk, entertained Ggma for awhile. Ggma and James tooks the trash to the dumpster. We stayed about two hours.
More fun and games, another nap, playground, bath and shampoo (which went better) and off to bed. Yawn! And that's where I'm headed too because 5:30 is awfully early. I think his mother is starting to miss him.
Monday, May 23, 2016
Saturday, May 21, 2016
When is it James' Turn?
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!
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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