A Life in the Day of a Gramma

This article from Carolyn Hax has been passed around the internet and facebook and it a good pictures in a nutshell of what it is like raising little kids. link

It's funny, too.
So, as I had Zane today and will have tomorrow, and wishing I could attack the mess in the basement, instead I am blogging while he naps. 
I had already made my bed, had a load in the washer.
This is what we did today.  He comes early, 6:30 am, since mom works at 7. So, first thing first, take off his coat and hat and watch while he tries to take off his jammies, he can upzip them all right, but the sleeves don't' come off by shaking, So, I help.  And he can get his feet out, so he had a diaper change and his clothes on and then he finds the crackers in the diaper bag, Uh oh, not much breakfast after that.  So, he "helps "wake up auntie and uncle.  After which he has to be chased away from the bathroom doors a few times while I am trying to think about breakfast for Lynette, But she didn't go, too much exhausting time spent on  the play the last two weeks and didn't sleep the night before, so we wake her up again at 9 to go to second block.  And Zane is in his coat for the trip to school a half hour before time to leave. So, I have to tell him to wait about 10 times., then take his coat off. Of course, all during this I get up every 5 minutes to make sure he isn't, taking things out of the cupboard or the fridge.  As well as coloring with dry erase markers, and drinking chocolate milk, which he seems to spill half of.  He cleans up after himself, which means I clean up the other half. He ate a cookie with the milk, got frosting on the floor, showed me the frosting, and wiped it up off the floor and onto the stove??? Not sure about that one, Cleaning again.  Coat back on, into car seat, off to take Lynette to school, then Walmart. Every 2 minutes needs a "sit down in the car" reminder, and finally he's in the baby seat, while I hang on to him at the pharmacy, in the aisles, back in the cart again, to pick out oranges, which he sits on, then put them on the checkout counter, hang on to him again, to keep him from playing with the card reader, up and down so no playing on the toy cars. Some lady offers him a granola bar, but "not for naughty boys" says this mean ole Gramma. We go on to grampa's work.  I have to hold him while the backhoe picks up something really heavy then into the office for a quick look at the mail, on my lap he wants to play computer, so Grampa takes him outside to run, then inside the shop over the trailers, he picks up a hammer, shovel, broom, and I say "you can say 'no' ".   So, he's all dirty, so we wash hands.  Back into car seat,  drive though post office to mail letters, drive through at the bank, home for lunch.  On the way home  we splurge and have Culver's flavor of the day, ( it was red raspberry, my favorite) he's yawning, time to change diaper and he's dirty so ... "BATH" so in he goes with balloons, splashes all over, dumps shampoo, shreds bar of soap, howls while dressing (soap) and into bed with a treat, asleep in 2 min.  WOW!!

So, I'm blogging instead of cleaning the kitchen and making treats. (Well, I made a quick sketch of the morning, and then off too....)

Clean kitchen, sweep floor, make chocolate cupcakes, and glaze and sprinkle them, pick up toys, clean out an end table to put my living room afghan in. which meant recycling magazines and finding new homes for napkins and an old china tea set and a rock collection.

 I got off easy today, Zane slept until Lynette woke him up at four, then she could help watch this dynamo.

Then we packaged cupcakes for a valentine treat, (This was Valentine's Day)  Zane ate two mini ones, he needed cleaned up before chocolate got every where and the table too, and said no about 10 times for any more.

He had 1 1/2 clementines after that which I peeled. Then "no" throwing toys, or books, which he did anyway, and had to be told to pick back up, which he didn't want to, but I made him anyway.  And before time to go home, I watched him throw balloons all over. Oops, there goes one behind couch, so he had to be helped back there to get it and then picked up the other toys already back there (good boy!) and pulled back up.  Here's mom!!!  We watch at the window as she drives up, into coat, hugs and kisses and then I turn into mom mode, deliver valentines with 15 year old, go to library and back home to make nice supper for the my valentines left. here and hope my daughter isn't getting sick just because she looks like it.


Here's the Valentine cupcakes I made. 

And here is Zane eating them.

I suppose the rest of the day I did something, too, but I bet it wasn't more than getting the dishes done.

And going to bed.

I sure love that boy, but he WEARS me out. What makes it harder this time around is that fact that I'm older, and that I care about walking across the floor without tripping on something, and I like to have my kitchen cleaned up before noon.

Training Him Up Right

My daughter and family came to visit the other day. They came because we had other family here too, an auntie and grampa. It is strange having a daughter come back to visit. To a home that will always be home because we are here, but now she has her own home now, with her own things, and her own family.

So, what little boy doesn't love trains?  This little Zaney boy of ours sure loves them!  The next up cousin has decided he's too big for trains at age 9 and wants Zane to have them.  Auntie Cindy brought a box of some of them which provided entertainment for all the rest of us for the rest of the weekend. The adults had just as much fun as Zane did with putting together as elaborate a track as the pieces we had allowed.  We tried different configurations and different trains, and had them going different directions, and Zane was more hindrance that help in keeping them going.  But, it was all good fun. 

For everyone.

And of course Grampa, is helping make a nice track.

Zane is charmed with the tunnels. 

Now this box of train stuff lives at his house and according to all reports, he is still playing with them.

And I am charmed with just how cute he is.

Helpful?

One thing I love about little children is their willing helpfulness.  It isn't very long until the whatever it is inside them is telling them that it is no longer cool to do little jobs for Mom or Dad, or Gramma.  But, until then, I make sure to heap praise on the head of my willing helper now, even if it means that one person gets all the forks and spoons.

Drill Sergeant

My daughter knows how to do a lot of things and she is learning to do a few more.  She auditioned for and was accepted into the cast of the high school winter play, with two days notice.  Of course, the winter play isn't a big "oooo, let's go try out for the musical" sort of thing, but it sure is a good place to start. 

Anyway, every cast member has to be on a committee, or whatever the call all the different things that have to be done to put a play on, and she chose set.  So, she has learned a few things about building and putting a set together, including running a drill, and not wearing good clothes to paint in. 

So, when it came time to hang another shelf to put her grand champion trophy on, she used the drill to put in the screws.  Which she did quite nicely, the shelf was hung, the trophy ready to put on, and.....it's too big.  Not, too tall, we compensated for that.  The base it too big to put on a 6" shelf.  So, it is sitting on her bookcase, and she spread out the rest of her trophies.

She does have a lot of trophies, five years of competing in taekwondo, translates into a lot of fun and a lot of hard work.  If you want to see what her grand champion trophy looks like go here.

My First Try at Felting

I haven't posted to my crafting blog for a very long time.  But I made some felted coasters, and I liked the way most of them turned out.

Check it out here.