May 26

Tuesday:  It was a hot and humid Tuesday here at the Beach House (90 degrees), and with no air conditioning, it was a trifle uncomfortable. I don't think the kiddos noticed it very much, and so that was good at least. They DO have air at their house. I have three very nice window fans that I kept on high and the side door was opened, so at least the air was moving around in here.

 But between feeding these guys, playing a little bit, cleaning up messes (diapers!), etc. I didn't take hardly ANY pictures today. The picture above happened like this: Brendan, who was in an especially quiet mood today, had gone into my bedroom for a little relief from the chaos of the main rooms. Brendan has gotten to where he relaxes quite a bit in my round chair--and I am glad he has found a way to create a little space for himself. But TODAY, Aidan wasn't going to give Brendan his space without a little bit of a fight over the round chair. Anyway, they finally got laughing about it and I distracted Aidan out of my room so that Brendan could enjoy some quiet.

 Erin's main thing is this: she will walk back into the toy room, collect an interesting object, and then bring it out to show me. "Yook! Yook!" she will say, smiling. It's like she wants to show me something I haven't already seen. Naturally, she doesn't understand that I have had the majority of these toys since Emma was a baby and many of the toys go all the way back to when my boys played with them! But I try to look surprised, smile a huge smile, and she returns to the playroom to collect another object to bring out to show me. She did settle right into watching a movie this afternoon.

But mid-afternoon, I was sweating up a storm, relented and put on the Disney Plus station. We watched "Frozen" together, except Brendan remarked that he does NOT like this movie--he only likes Frozen 2. Sigh. Brendan did come in and out of the room as we watched, but any time something happened in the movie that was in any way tense or conflicting, he walked back into my bedroom. I wish I knew what this dear little person was thinking when he becomes so stressed at conflict. He had gotten a new Nintendo Switch video game, a Pokeman game, and he was pretty focused on everything to do with that, trying to explain the whole Pokeman world to me. Since I have no idea what he is talking about, I have to really STRETCH myself to listen and be interested. I do make an effort, though, because afterall, I am his grandma and I love him.

Aidan was his usual jovial self. The last hour of our time together was spent chasing each other around the house, occasionally throwing a pillow or two, and Aidan completely and loudly cracking up. I love this little child so much.