cousins week

The first day the baby did not get a nap.   I asked him if he wanted to take a nap, and he said no.   So I called Dan and we discussed it, and he said to just put him in the pack and play, shut the door and he'd sleep.

So I found the baby again and told him it was rest time, and he had his special polka dot blanket, and we'd done the milk and the story, so I took him to the little crib and put him in it.

Okay, he hadn't cried one tear all day until he was placed in there, and by the time I was over to the door he was wailing so intensely no sound was coming out of him.

I ran back and snatched him out of there.  Good LOR-ed, no. My heart cannot handle that.  We cuddled for a while and he slept in my arms a bit.  

But today he fell sound asleep in my arms and could be slid over onto the couch where he had a decent, real nap.

 Okay, and this:

She raids her diaper bag every day and tries on clothes. She wiped her nose on one clean shirt, looked at it and said, "Oops, buggers," and threw it to the side.

Yah, oops.

 Then she got her bathing suit bottom stuck on her head and we had to pull pretty hard to get it back off again.

There was time spent in the yard.   Look at that grass.  It looks like an abandoned home.

The baby's hair floats around his head like a fluffy halo.

 I guess this little dog couldn't even  hold her head up tonight, she was so tired out.

 The mud puddle was a huge attraction.

Because then you have to get rinsed off with the hose.

And repeat.

 This is a bad dog, and these photos are evidence of her nefarious activities.

 Here we've got an inchworm

 And this--they're watching a Scooby Doo movie and she's hugging him during the scary part.

 Back to the ever-popular mud puddle.

They're not entirely safe with these croquet mallets.  The rules include No Smashing and No Waving.  They were doing well here though, not high sticking.

 Here he's being a transformer and is evidently HILARIOUS.

Okay, this little trio of trouble kicked my butt this week.   They were so good, but they're so wild and busy and crazy.    There were dirty footprints all over in my bathtub--should have realized when I saw them with tub toys they had to get them out of the tub somehow.

And late this afternoon that guy in the green shirt had to go potty, so he peed on a tree.   Well then she had to also pee on the tree.   They both also managed to pee on themselves a little bit.

So then we had the two of them in the yard in that state of undress while the aunties ran inside to find more clothes.

I thought, "Where are your parents?"

Soon they were here, and they took their wild babies home.

I am tired, but so happy for this wild, funny week.

love you crazy squirrels SO MUCH,  Gramma

things I will miss

When they grow up, I will miss stuff like this.    Julia brought those big letter cut outs she made and instructed me where they were to be placed--right above our bed.

I see this in real estate all the time.  People decorate with their children's names on the wall.  It's nice, but we've never done it.   We tend not to have great walls for this kind of thing, slanted ceilings in the upstairs bedrooms and odd window placements.   Plus I'm not very good at Pottery Barn decorating.   I like it when someone else does it, but am lost on my own.

And this: 

That is a fancy bracelet with glass beads and a magnet clasp.  He's attached one magnet to the clip that holds the mirror, and the other to the scissors.   (Those are actually pretty strong magnets.)

Yep, my squirrels are going to grow up.

But not today.   They're out in the kitchen making sponge cake and whipped cream desserts right now--no idea why, but that's okay.   There's no wrong time for eating those.

Happy Tuesday.    love you kids forever, MOM

memorial day sunday

They all made a trip to visit Jay's parents.

The kids staged this fight in the car.

Bored.

Lydia brought the camera to take pictures, "So you can feel like you were there."

 She took pictures of all the food.  It looks like I missed out on a feast.  That's a pan of cheesy potatoes above.

 Here are James and some cousins goofing around outside.

The view, so pretty--deep, crystal-clear lake, everything turning green.

 This is about the only picture of his parents.

Hey guys!

Wish I could have been there too.

love you all, Val

the end of the week

 It wound down quietly.

On Tuesday night while I was working, there was t.c. on the phone, "Gramma, can you come to my program?"

Dannell did mention this a few weeks ago, but it was lost in the sea of details around here

I said, "When is it?

"Tomorrow."

"What time?"

"Nine o'clock."

"I will be there."

Then I went and told my friends that I'd have to be up and on the road for Wisconsin in the morning by 7:30.   They laughed and moaned, and we bucked up and did it and it was GREAT.

The church service was fun, especially with p.j. rolling all over the place, kicking it up. (She was funny, but by an hour, we were all getting tired of ways to keep her quiet.) 

Here he is singing. They were beautiful.  My guy is third from the left.

This is the little brother, l.c. who kicked it up with p.j. in the pews.  At one point, he was on his back with his shirt bunched up under his arms. She observed this and threw her own self back on the pew next to him and pulled her own shirt up.

John looked at this and rolled his eyes and laughed.  Even though we're not Catholic, it was so beautiful to be in church with them all on a spring morning, listening to songs and kissing my grandbabies on the hair.

I could hear John's voice during the prayers and see Dannell across the room with her class.

And there were some young squirrels in the pew beside me.

Julia lost more teeth today.   Her mouth is currently a hideous mess, teeth popped out, others half grown.

She's a little discouraged about it:  "Look at my mouth!"  

Last week at the lake someone mentioned how slow an eater she is.

Well, she has hardly any teeth at this point.

We are not worried. This will all work out.   John was once a young squirrel too in church rolling around with his shirt bunched up, but not anymore.

Life is nothing but good.  love you all, MOM

cleaning up branches and making salsa

A lot of branches came off the pine trees, probably in those last heavy snowstorms a few weeks ago.

Okay, this is a sight I didn't want to see:  Him, way up in a tree.  He's trying to figure out how to get a branch down that's hung up on other branches.   Nobody wants that to come falling down later on a car or a person.

It took a little fiddling around, but they did get it.

Kari made some workbooks for them. 

 Here they are making Kirsten's fabulous salsa.  It's so good a person could eat nothing else, ever.  That whole blue bowl was pretty much gone by the end of the day.   I laughed about Marge Simpson on the cupboard there. 

Why is she there?

Nobody knows.

It's a dark, rainy Tuesday, and I wish we were all at the lake eating salsa.     love, Mom

dock time, 2013

 They hauled all the tools and crap over with the tractor, saved a few trips.

 Julia wanted to test the water.  The results:  Very, very cold.

 Is it straight?  Is it level?  Why is this thing so flippin' heavy?

Of course, a helpful canine joins in.   She hurt her tail yesterday at some point.   They were doing research about this on the Internet, and it seems like it's probably not actually broken, just sprained maybe, injured from over use while she tore around with Heidi's dog chasing frisbees and wrestling.

 Ta-da!  Is it straight or level?  Not sure, but it looks good enough for another summer.  We tried it out and it wasn't wobbly, so that's the important part.

Nice work, men.     love you so, Mom, and Dad too