Exploring Gramma's World

Nathan and Andrew are helping Gramma water her plants.  If you look close, you can see they're helping me water the floor, as well.  Fortunately, they know to get a towel and wipe it up.  Now, I have very clean floors and green plants.

A perfect day to try chalk on the driveway.  Grampa allows it on the driveway, but can't handle grafitti in the garage.  He's softening.  He used to hate it on the sidewalk, too.  I'm looking forward to hopscotch with the boys.

Nolan is agreeable to anyone feeding him.  Andrew enjoys nurturing his cousin.

Nolan is beginning to reach for what he wants.  He's getting ready to try for the brass ring.

No indication whether he prefers the right or left hand.  Ambidextrous?

Mommy's favorite color is orange.  Nolan can understand why.

He wants to get a good look at everything, now.

Nolan's having a swinging time at Gramma's.

Andrew discovers another pair of Gramma's interesting shoes.

It took me weeks to get used to wearing thongs when I was in college.  I bought a pair and went out in them and could barely walk home; my feet hurt so bad.

Nathan loves to use my Dirt Devil hand vacuum.  He often totes it around checking corners for something to scoop up.  Andrew loves their little pink broom and sometimes takes it to bed at naptime.  Nathan noticed ants trying to get in after a heavy rain outside. He is not fond of bugs.  He offered Andrew the Dirt Devil saying, "Here Andrew, it's your turn to vacuum.  I'll show you where to use it."  I noticed aloud how generous he was to share.  His father pointed out that he was manipulating Andrew to suck up the ants he was afraid of.
Later, when we were playing outside, I thought I would help Nathan with his fear and pointed out big black ants that would walk across my foot or hand.  Nathan watched in amazement, but wouldn't put his hand anywhere near the ant.  Later he was watching an ant crawl along a brick and asked his Grampa, "If I touch him, will he eat me?"  Grampa asked, "How big is the ant?"

Singing in the Rain

Grampa had a video of Joshua Bell playing violin from "Dancing with the Stars" he thought the boys would like.  When it was time to see the video Nathan was watching me teach a piano lesson.  Grampa told Andrew to let Nathan know they were ready to watch a video.  Andrew sat down next to Grampa and said, "It's okay.  He's busy right now."

Ryan Joseph and the boys went with me to a cello rehearsal I was accompanying.  They were transfixed by the REAL cellos.  When the rehearsal was over, the boys were upset and didn't want to leave.  "There's one more," they insisted.  Lisa, the teacher, had played in the ensemble piece, but the boys thought she would play a solo like the other cellists.

Andrew's job is to wash the egg rings Gramma uses to make her egg muffins.

Nathan is harvesting Gramma's kefir.  He eats a couple of the grains each time providing him with 41 different pro-biotics.

Next the boys scrub potatoes for dinner.  They use the same alligator scrubber their father used many years ago.

Time to take a break with the Motorola Xoom.  Gramma uses her timer, so each of the boys has a chance to select an activity.  But they enjoy it as a team.

The rule is to never wake a sleeping baby.  Nolan thinks he's being held, so he's having a very good nap.  Rebecca's cat checked him out from a distance and decided to keep a wide berth.

Grampa and Nolan are watching Nathan and Andrew ride bikes and cars in the garage.  Today we had the garage doors up, so they could drive in and out of the garage for a larger track.  Sometimes, it was hard to make it up the slope to get back into the garage.  The boys would then call for Gramma, who was the tow truck driver and was able to tow them in.

Nolan looks on; dreaming of the future.  Wheels!

Don't you like Andrew's shoes?  He balances himself very well in Gramma's shoes.

And so does Nathan.  These are big shoes to fill.  The boys try to walk up steps in them, and wonder how I manage.  I have been known to lose one of my shoes while descending a staircase.  A bit of Cinderella in me.

Nolan is starting to talk in order to keep his audience's attention.  It's working.

Sunday, the boys went to Nolan's house to check out his toys.  Nolan is very good at sharing.

Nolan is wearing his "Grampa" shirt.

He's starting to recognize the camera and goes into politician mode immediately.

Nolan is in awe of his cousins.

The boys got umbrellas from Gramma.  

Nathan chose a green frog.  No surprise since he chooses everything in green.

And Andrew went with his second choice; a yellow duck, similar to the one his father had as a child.  Andrew's first choice was the ballerina umbrella.  I think they were out of stock on that one.

Even Grampas have Troubles

This was a rough week for Grampa.  On Monday, he had me call the refrigerator repairman to fix the door on the fridge.  It was not shutting normally and we'd sometimes find it open.  We had lots of food in the fridge, and thought that was contributing to the problem.  But when the company left and the food was gone the problem remained.  Grampa removed the door and looked for the problem.  After replacing the door with a piece left over it seemed to be better for awhile, but then the problem returned.  The repairmen arrived and told me they it was fixed in less than five minutes.  They solution was to turn the orange juice bottles in the door the other way.  The handles on the new brand of orange juice I bought on sale hit the shelf of the fridge.  That'll be $75, please.  How much did I save on that orange juice?  My friend, Jean, pointed out, sometimes intelligent people can't figure out simple problems.  In the future we'll try to provide Grampa with more difficult problems.

Thursday Grampa was driving home from work, when one of the front tires fell off his car.  He had to call a second tow truck, when the first one arrived and was unable to tow a car with a broken lower ball joint.  Some days it's just more difficult to smile.

Nolan is shocked that Grampa couldn't fix the fridge.

When he grows up, he'll check the orange juice bottles.

Or he'll call Grampa to fix it.

Gramma came up with an idea for a new game for the boys.  They wanted to use their bats and it seemed a bit dangerous in the house, but it was too cold to go outside.  So Nathan and Grampa blew up balloons, which Gramma and the boys attached at the top of the steps to hang down on both sides of the balcony.

I'll help you Grampa.

It's tether-tee-ball.  The boys loved the game. And Gramma gets extra points for figuring out a way to ensure the bats wouldn't hit a brother's head.

It's Nolan's turn for the swing.  Nathan and Andrew wait patiently.
Nathan is holding his favorite toy, Mousey.  Mousey comes for sleepovers.  He's supposed to stay in Nathan's bed or his bag, but he is a convenient armful.  

Mousey is a character in the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.  When Nathan first brought his mouse to help him take his naps, I asked what his mouse's name was.  He looked at me as if I was deaf and said,  "Mousie."  I called Aunt Becky to find out Mousie's real name, and found out he doesn't have any other name.  Gramma went out and got more books by Laura Joffe Numeroff.  Andrew's special sleepy time pal is his lovey bear, who looks so angelic.  Andrew has a name for him; Spike.  There must be more to Spike's personality than I'm aware of.

Andrew's turn for the swing.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily; life is but a dream.

Nolan's turn for the bouncy chair.

People say I look like the Gerber baby.

I hope that's a good thing.

Nolan has learned to grab onto things.  He especially likes to grab his feet while he's being changed.

Gramma, let me show you this new Yoga position I figured out.

Tell me how you convinced Gramma to marry you.

Nolan decides to take matters into his own hands.

Blues Brother - Nolan

 Nathan's turn for the bouncy chair.  His seat is not touching the seat.

Our garage now resembles the Indy 500.

It was time to go home, but the day is not complete without a little cut and paste time.