also found in that folder

 This:

"Since Christmas my family has been nothing but sick, and so has our grandson, t.c.  Our son and his wife tried to take a vacation to the Padre Islands and visit her retired grandparents, but with a relentlessly pooping toddler, it had it's moments. Poor t.c.

But everyone is healthy again now and he's been at my house this week, the adorable wee beast.

I had Mr. t.c. ysterday , had to take him with us to the orthodontist.  The orthodontist has a little video arcade in the corner of the waiting room, big baskets of beanie babies, cards, books, crayons and paper. Was t.c. interested in the toys?  No.  He wanted to mess with the wastebasket. "Garbage, garbage," he muttered, slamming the cupboard door over and over.  Grrr.

Eventually he got sick of the place and yelled, Gramma! I wanna go!" and, "Where's my dad?" over and over, while smudging the glass doors with saliva and chubby hands.  I told him we had to wait for Little Jay, getting his teeth worked on.

Then he talked about that for a while, "Jay teeeef," showing me his own teeth.

 I helped him play the 4 wheeler video game for as long as I could stand there with 30 pounds on my left hip.  He liked watching the 4 wheelers, but I do NOT play video games and I was terrible at it, running into trees, flying off the 4 wheeler.


Oh, then he spotted the little fridge with the bottled water, "I'm thirsty!"  Of course you are.  H wanted to commandeer the bottle, and I really didn't want t.c. in charge of 16 ounces of water on an upholstered sofa.  He put it over where I couldn't reach it on the other side, putting the cap on and off, glancing at me warily in case I might try to reach for it. What a work out.

 And Aunt Julia is three years old and she gets so jealous of him, which adds another dimension to the day--today we didn't have to go anywhere and he and Julia played their little hearts out for hours, jumping off benches into the ball crawl, asking for popsicles, watching Curious George videos.

Life is good here, and though nobody sleeps in the little crib these days, it's still in the corner of our bedroom, flowered sheets and puffy print blankets, waiting for whoever might want to snooze there next.   Kiss your babies, kiss your kids, kiss each other.  Blessings to us all in the New Year."

Yeah, things change and yet they do not.    Beautiful quiet February, always much the same.   love, Val