Grandbabysitting is the BEST!

 Last night was the annual fund-raising dinner for Acton Institute, where Dylan works as an assistant editor. So Dylan and Kelly got all dressed up in beautiful finery (don't they look great?!!) and went to the dinner. I was invited to be the babysitter for Brendan. I arrived while Kelly was getting ready for the dinner, so Dylan and I and Brendan hung out for awhile ...

 I snapped these two photos of Brendan and his daddy, along with many many others that I will not post here! These two were my very favorites. I love these two fellows!

 Brendan was very animated last night. Every time I reached for my camera, he beamed that smile and his little eyes were just dancing with merriment! He is a real ham when it comes to getting his picture taken. He's become quite a famous Facebook baby!

 This is Brendan showing me his great pumpkin. He was so pleased with it! Dylan said he had been referring to it all day as, "Bahh" and since he has two fun little toy balls he plays with and enjoys, it could be that he thought this was just a giant ball ... who knows? But I think he would have been extra pleased if he could have gotten it to roll around in their front room.

 I think Brendan is cuter than the Gerber Baby! He is SO full of personality and inner JOY. I think he is in love with my camera!

 And this picture just absolutely cracks me up ... he KNEW I was enjoying his facial expressions and just kept them coming!

 Brendan with his old-fashioned dial-up phone ...

 There is a story behind this rather SAD face on our baby. [I didn't post this one on Facebook for fear (!) it would ruin Brendan's reputation as being a perpetually happy baby!] 

It was getting near his bedtime you see, and his mama was NOWHERE to be found ... so ... Kelly had told me to try yogurt if he got fussy. So I fed Brendan his yogurt and he did really well ~ WE did really well, until I thought he was opening up his little mouth for more so I spooned in another mouthful. But what I didn't realize was that he hadn't swallowed the previous spoonful I'd given him. Since he is kind of a "new" solid food eater, this extra load in his mouth threw him off and he was NOT pleased with me one single bit! Most of that superfluous bite of yogurt came back out and down the front of him. :( Thankfully, he forgave me and cheered back up!

After the yogurt, we went upstairs to Brendan's room to get ready for bed, read some stories, play quietly and see if he would actually go to sleep for me! These pictures are of Brendan playing with his RUSSIAN (!) (Dylan!) blocks. He was very careful to share them with me.

We played for about 20 minutes, but then Brendan was really really tired. So ... he has a routine of being walked, cuddled, sung to, and then falling asleep. I followed that as carefully as I could. He's a heavy little fellow to carry around for 30 minutes, but this is what he likes! I sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (which he somewhat tolerated), but he much preferred, "O Holy Night" and "What Child is This" emphasizing their minor keys (he's a musical baby). He finally fell (heavily) asleep in my arms and I transferred him to his crib. 

Mmmm ... the sweetness of this little baby ... he has completely stolen my heart. Being his grandma is pretty special stuff.