I'm Back

This is one tired Mimi checking in. I am back at the farm. I've been on full out grandmother mode. I kept Baby Girl for several days while Little Sister took a preschool graduation trip with her mommy and daddy. (There were princesses involved. Want to guess where they went?) This precious little one is not fond of staying buckled in a stroller or waiting in lines, so we had our own fun time at her house.

The very first meal with the others away, she climbed into Little Sister's chair and without hestitaion, she sang the blessing. Loudly. That's usually Little Sister's job. We didn't know what the words were, but it was certainly a thankful tune.

Daddy-O came down for a couple of days to help out (and to keep me company) and his little sidekick was not happy when I was the one to get her out of bed in the mornings. She wanted her Daddy-O. I feel the same way about him.

We stayed busy for days. So busy. She gave several "woo ka way wee" concerts. Sometimes to the animal audience. Sometimes to us. And often she just sang for herself. This entire family loves music.

There might have been some television involved in our weekend. Mommy has strict limits on TV watching. And I think we may have slightly exceeded those. Desperate times, and all that. Her favorite is Little Einsteins. At least she's learning about classical music.

I did sneak in a little knitting. Very early in the mornings before she woke up was the best. And nap time was good--unless I needed to take a nap, too. Yep. That happened. If she happened to see me knitting she usually directed me, "Put the knidding away, Mimi! Put the knidding away!" And I was glad to do so. But she has not learned about "just let me finish this row." Sometimes I did have to stop mid-row. Good thing this is a simple pattern.

The first day was cold and wet, but the weather warmed up nicely and we spent lots of time on their beautiful porch. We played "socka" (with the soccer ball) and tea party and had many conversations between Daisy and Donald Duck. She always handed me the Donald toy. I thought I would have made a great Daisy. But I never got to find out.

"Let's draw, Mimi" was a frequent request, too. I discovered that washable markers are still messy even though they do wash off of things. But of course, she liked them better than the crayons.  But the markers mysteriously disappeared and she had to make do. I loved it when she said, "Mimi, I working on my lines." And darned if she wasn't. I didn't know she knew what lines were. She turned two less than two months ago.

And of course, there were some of "those" moments, too. It is amazing how rusty your skills get after a few,  several, a LOT of years away from full time care of little ones. She was sitting at the table, eating her oatmeal one morning, and I was cleaning up the kitchen. I stooped down to fasten all of those awkward child-proof latches on the lower cabinets. When I stood up, she was gone. I didn't hear any noises. I looked around and then I heard a little voice. "Mimi! I eating outside!" She had decided to have her breakfast al fresco. Those quiet little feet. That's what I get for leaving the porch door open.

And on the very last day, we were washing her hands after breakfast. She can just barely reach the water when she stands on a stool. She loves the foaming soap and willingly washes her hands. But this time, when she got the soap on her hand, she plopped it instantly on her head. <sigh> I had just washed her hair the day before. This time, I held her up, told her to close her eyes and stuck her head under the water faucet. Turned out she had put more soap on her head than I thought. We rinsed and rinsed and finally got it all out. Her hair was still wet when the rest of her family got home.

We did it. We made it though the long long weekend (can you call five days a weekend?) without any major disasters. I remembered all the medicines. Bedtime was less painful than I expected. I was delighted to have some one-on-one time with this youngest granddaughter.

The thought did go through my head that many grandparents do this full time. God bless them all.