they went to mexico

We had this conversation a few times today about where are Mommy and Daddy?

I know it means hardly anything to them, but not going to bog down in sorrow over it.

"Mexico, dudes!  We're having a sleepover!"

That sufficed.

They rambled around all day and played their little hearts out.  I leave the TV run in the background.  I always have.  They pay attention at points, but not as much as you'd think.

These two--the imaginary play is pretty hilarious.   There was a whole dialogue about this Don't Wake Daddy thing.  I just listened.

And him?  He had a job scheduled, drove to it, as requested, and was anything ready?

No, of course not.   Does the contractor have the  brains or courtesy to inform him?    "No counter tops, tile not finished, painters not done."

No, of course not.

So the work he scheduled into next week he could have done today had he known.  But he made the most of the abruptly empty day, rented a chipper and chipped all the branches from the tree he cut down, got that hellacious mess out of the driveway.

b.g. put his hands over his ears, and then ran for the house.

This morning I took him to his preschool and that was great.  His daycare lady was dropping off other daycare kids, and she was so nice to me.  I met his friends, his teacher.  He was so excited he was bouncing like Tigger.

When I picked him up he told his daycare lady how he was going home with me today for a sleepover and then he was having another sleepover with his other grandma, only not Grandma Wansin. (My parents.)  "She lives by this school."

Whee.

Here's Grandpa taking a rest.   The funny part about this is the other side.

Napping with the dogs.  He says he's not a dog person.  The dogs are obviously Him people.

For supper he made sausage and pancakes, oranges, fried egg sandwiches, a big old cabin breakfast.  

They ate.   See that thing on the high chair?  The high chair is a vintage piece of crap, but it's been around here forever.

There was a tear in the vinyl and to keep it from getting bigger, I taped a picture over it.  For a long time it was a gorilla.  Then the gorilla wore out and came undone.

James asked about it, and about putting on a new picture.

That would be fine.

"What kind of picture?"

"Whatever you want is fine."  (Stupid me.)

Okay, he googled, "Turd sliding down a rainbow," and clicked images.

I've lived with enough teenaged boys to know better than, "Whatever you want."  Sheeze.  What was I thinking?

 Okay, here he is, b.g.'s little brother, Mr. Angel-face.

He's sassy though and has his own ideas.

 b.g.:

 Kirsten came over and showed us how to use the chopper to make salsa.

That's Lydia, aka Kari being difficult.

This little device chopped everything in perfectly uniform little pieces and it did it fast.  Heidi gave us one for Christmas and now we know how to use it.

Okay, this is seriously so delicious I could eat nothing else for probably a year.  She made it for the party on Saturday, but I told her it could not be left here with me.  It's not safe.

At the middle of the evening, we picked up toys and helped the little guys get on pajamas.  The little brother wanted to sleep in his clothes.

I can live with that.   He went into the pack and play bed, and b.g. and I climbed into Tim's bed.

We put on my CD of ocean waves--it's twenty minutes long, and we put it on repeat.  It's still in there now, waves rolling.

In less than fifteen minutes they were asleep.  I stayed there a while longer.  It's been a very long time since I cuddled b.g. to sleep.  I listened to the ocean waves, and watched the snow falling, sky like a big, bright dome.

Spring may be delayed, but this night is once in a lifetime.

love forever, Val, aka MOM, aka Grandma