February 24 Good enough!

Tuesday:  I came down with a virus almost 10 days ago which leveled me flat. Today was the very first day I felt "recovered" enough to be out and about. Since I'm pretty sure this virus originated at the "Pahman household," I wasn't afraid about passing germs on to the kiddos today. I have slept so much in the last week that I wonder I will ever need to sleep again! I did visit the doctor's office last week Wednesday, just to make certain I wasn't dying or anything. My throat was so sore, it seriously felt like I was swallowing flaming arrows. I am so thankful to be healed from this virus--thank you, Lord!

I did some cleaning this afternoon over at the house before the kids came home from school. I didn't have enough strength to clean with much gusto--but I felt I at least made a little difference in the kitchen area. It's important to me, as an older person, to feel I am some use to the family--otherwise ... I feel so selfish and useless! So, I am thankful they let me help clean up around their house once a week.

I remembered to bring a few of my toys along with me to play with the kids. Cal's very favorite toy is my fox/wolf tic-tac-toe. Cal is very good at this game! He doesn't like to lose EVER ... so I have to watch him carefully, because he likes to switch up the rules in his favor. (!!) I am pretty careful not to allow him to do that, though--it's just bad training for him. We had a long discussion this afternoon about "cheating", and I kept it "light" and pleasant, but strongly came out with a negative vote for cheating of any kind. Cal accepted this and went on to legitimately beat me THREE games in a row. THREE.

I also brought my JENGA blocks with me. What's so interesting about these children (all FOUR of them) is that they will BUILD with anything you give them! I mean--these guys are used to sophisticated LEGO models and build them accurately. But give them a bunch of plain wooden blocks ... and they make all kinds of cool stuff out of them! They enjoy playing the game JENGA, but they have just as much fun building out of them. I find this amazing actually. 

It's difficult to see that this is Brendan (below) because I can't find his face for his hair ... but Brendan is an expert builder. He always has been since he was a very little person!

In the container beside Erin, there is CLAY. Molding clay. NOT PlayDoh. I'm talking hard, molding, difficult to work with CLAY. All of these children have 3-D brains. Mine is completely FLAT! I watched Erin work with the Jenga blocks as she made a little "shopping store" out of them, and then she used the modeling clay to make little tiny animals and people (carrying itsy-bitsy purses!) shopping in her store.

Aidan took some of the Jenga blocks to build a tower of some kind--he has such patience and determination.

Erin worked on this little project for over an hour, happy and singing and creating ... I don't have enough words to say how great I think this is!

Look at these two!

It was SO good to be here today, laughing, and listening, and playing. I have been alone for too many days in a row! I'm going to begin to be eccentric if I'm not careful. Old people get that like. I don't want to get like that. !!

February 13-14 Cal's sleepover

Friday/Saturday:  It's "winter break" at all of the area schools, so most of the public schools were "off" either Friday and Monday, or Monday and Tuesday of next week. Forest Hills was off Friday and Monday. I was able to pick Cal up Friday afternoon for a sleepover. This little guy cracks me up on a regular basis. He really loves to come and spend the night, so I need to soak the joy of this up to the brim for as long as I can!

Cal LOVES this table foosball (soccer) game so much. We must have played 15 games of it while he was here. Cal definitely does NOT like to lose at any game he plays (this trait runs in his family!), so he has a way of making "changes" to the rules to accommodate that goal. I will say, though, he did "allow" me to win a few games, but only because he was so far ahead in the "win" category that there was no threat that I would overtake him. Look at his little face (below)! He is such an adorable little person.

One of the rule changes Cal made was if he made a goal using one of his corner guys, it counted as TWO points instead of one. The problem was, though, that almost all of his "guys" were dubbed "corner guys"! What a little stinker.

We played a lot in the spare bedroom that has a lot of toys in bins and cubbies. Cal has always liked this Duplo set that allows you to construct your own little road or raceway--the micro-machine vehicles work perfectly in the little roads. After we construct the design, Cal demands (!!) that we each pick a micro-machine vehicle for our race. This doesn't look very interesting in pictures, but Cal has such a blast playing with this set that he goes at it for 30 minutes at a stretch sometimes.

We also did a lot of fishing this weekend with our fishing poles and magnetic fish. Cal gets a real kick out of reeling his fish in and dumping them in our pretend bucket. The expression on his face (below) says it all.

Our movie time began at about 7:00. Cal requested that we watch "Home Alone One", so we did. I can't even count how many times I have seen that movie. Still ... it's fun to cuddle and watch a movie with this little guy. Cal went to bed without any issues whatsoever by about 8:45 and went immediately to sleep!

Cal slept all the way until 7am Saturday morning. He immediately wanted to have another foosball tournament, so we did that!

We also played quite a bit with our puppets, except I only took pictures of Cal and Alfredo. Alfredo is our alligator puppet that has a very wide mouth and a hidden stomach so that you can feed him small objects. I also have a tiny alligator finger puppet (his name is Grumpy)--his dad is Alfredo. Cal really got into these two this time around, but he also played with Oscar (I can't even think what kind of animal he is right now), and Sunny (our rather large and hairy Floogle-bird puppet). 

We also played basketball with our indoor set, which was really fun--but I forgot to take any pictures of Cal shooting baskets. 

I got all of my little wind-up toys down from the shelf and we wound them all up to see which one was the fastest moving one. The giraffe definitely was faster than the others.

We played a few games with our magnets too. This game is very fun, and the magnets are super strong.

For lunch on Saturday, I grilled both of us a delicious ham and cheese sandwich. Cal consumed it like it was candy! Yay! Cal has a very healthy pallet and is super easy to feed. 

The last game we played was my very fun "Fox and Wolf Tic-Tac-Toe" game. Cal's quite an expert at this game and legitimately won quite a few games--which delighted him to no end.

What an interesting little person you are, Cal! I'm so glad I get to be your grandma. Thank you so much, Lord.
 

February 10 with the kiddos

Tuesday:  The last few weeks with the kiddos, I neglected to bring any of my toys from home for them to play with after coming home from school. Today--I remembered! I brought JENGA, some colored dominoes, and the fox & wolf tic-tac-toe game. I also had a supply of Valentine chocolates to share and tiny decorated bundt cakes from Meijer (not pictured). 

Brendan is home about 45 minutes prior to the "littles" bus drop off, so I always get a chance to visit with him for a little while every Tuesday. I am thankful for this because once the other kids get home, it's almost too overwhelming to try to follow Brendan's conversation in any meaningful way. Today's topic was mostly his D&D stuff he got from his birthday. It's probably my least favorite subject (other than Pokemon), but it's important that I listen to him and try to interact ... because this is important to him, and he is important to me! Brendan has such a beautiful soul and I love to see him smile as he talks. Connecting with him is challenging when there are other disruptions going on--but one-on-one is doable if I try hard enough. I love him to pieces.

The other kiddos arrived home about 10 minutes earlier than usual. They told me that their bus was on time for ONCE! I love to play with these children. They are so artistic! And excellent builders! And quite intense! 

And VERY silly!

How would I describe Callaghan? Maybe a better question would be: How COULD I described Callaghan? First of all, he's hilarious. He's cut from the same cloth as Aidan and Erin, as far as stubbornness is concerned; but he far surpasses them in just complete "otherness" ... like he belongs to a different dimension or galaxy. He comes up with the most unique responses. His humor is so keen that he cracks himself up!

The cuteness of Cal ...

It's Cal's turn to come for an overnight this Friday. He enjoys physical activity, so I'm going to have to get my body in shape (!!) in the next few days in order to play basketball, chase him around the house, get him in locked body positions that he cannot escape without the correct password, throw paper airplanes around ... anyway, you get the gist. He sleeps really well here, so I won't have to stay up late (like I do with Erin), but ... remember ... Cal is an EARLY riser--6am is not unusual for him.

February 5 Meet JEFF

Thursday: I nearly ran over this turkey while pulling into Jesse's driveway this afternoon! I had no idea he was a neighborhood "regular" and has been named JEFF (this, according to Kaity-Bug). I noticed JEFF after I had put on my brakes and saw his face looking at me over my front bumper with his eyes rather hostile. Trust me, I had no evil intentions!

Kaity and her friend, Royce, came out the front door as I was getting out of my car and filled me in on the history of Jeff. It seems he hangs out around the "Clark" neighborhood, and according to Jesse, Jeff isn't always nice. He has cautioned Kaity NOT to chase Jeff or aggravate him in any way. 

Jeff was squawking (do turkeys squawk?) up a storm at us as I was trying to coax him a little closer for his premier photo shoot; but he wasn't having anything to do with it whatsoever. I think he is rather cute, don't you? He's larger than he appears in these pictures. I hope he hangs around all winter!

These icicles are hanging in double rows on the side of Jesse's house. Jesse says that's because the insulation and roofing are so poorly constructed on this house. All the heat rises and shoots through the ceiling and roof, melting the snow like crazy.

They are pretty cool looking!

The picture below was taken out my side window. The squirrels have finally successfully dismantled my trusty (!!) squirrel guard, which now lays at the bottom of the feeder station, covered in about 6" of new snow. Now they don't have to make a running leap for the feeders (which they successfully do all the time) ... they just use their little legs to climb the pole like it's as easy as can be. It's a good thing squirrels are CUTE and soft and very fun to watch ... or they would be in big, fat trouble. I'll take squirrels any day to Starlings! Starlings are mean and come 4-6 at a time and scare all the little birds away.

There are about four squirrels who hang out at my feeders, and I can't really tell them apart; otherwise, I would name all of them and try to keep them straight. The blue painter's tape on the red-roofed feeder is because the top pops open sometimes and then snow gets inside the feeder--not good. The tape looks ugly, but it does keep the top closed.

February 3 Brendan's Card

Tuesday:  This is the card I designed for Brendan's 14th birthday! I wasn't sure I would be able to find enough photos of Brendan this year, because I don't want to be in his face all the time with my camera; but I managed to find enough to make this card for him.

This is the front of his card from our visit to Deer Tracks Junction in the summer. We had such a fun day there.

Brendan brought a compass along with us to Schwallier's corn maze to ensure we didn't get lost somewhere out in the vast corn fields ... 

Their road sign boasted about "go-karts" ... only to find out that they were pedal-powered. Brendan got his moving a lot farther than I got mine. The apple shooter was VERY fun. Brendan shot 10 apples at targets out in the field. He did a good job with his aim!

We spent a few hours at the Grand Rapids Public Museum with all of the kiddos.

Back again at Deer Tracks (these pictures didn't load properly. I only took Brendan (and each of the kids individually) for ONE visit to Deer Tracks. I love it here so much. Each one of the grands have a great time here. One-on-one works best because there is so much to see and enjoy.

We took a few trips down to Mill Creek last summer with our fishing nets. Brendan and Cal attended cousin Chris's football game against Calvin University. Brendan and Kaity played at Altitude back in the fall too.

Below are just a few photos of Brendan's time at my house. I'm so thankful he still wants to come over! 

These pictures are from the downtown museum, which had such great interactive play stations for children of all ages. Look how amazing Brendan is with using these sticks to build. He is SO patient!

More pictures of our day at Deer Tracks ...

One more picture down at Mill Creek! It's so much fun to watch kiddos barefoot in a creek. SO healthy and homey, isn't it?

 These were all separate pages in Brendan's card that I stapled together to make a mini-book. I'm pretty sure he liked it.

February 3 Brendan's Birthday

Tuesday: Well--he's done it again--Brendan completely and absolutely ignored my mandate that he was NOT allowed to get a year older. I even threatened to remove February 3 from my calendar--ERASE IT! He knew I was only kidding ... but seriously ... it felt like yesterday he was turning FOUR not FOURTEEN.

I brought gifts over for Brendan today--his birthday fell on my usual cleaning day of Tuesday; and since it had been three weeks since I had actually shown up on a Tuesday over at their house, it had been three weeks since I had done any cleaning whatsoever. I arrived a little bit early today, unloaded my car of cleaning supplies, and walked around the main floor assessing what needed the most cleaning attention. I made some headway in the kitchen, but then I left and met my friend, Jen, for lunch from 11:30 - 12:30. 

I finished up the rest of my intended cleaning just about the time Brendan came home from school at 3:20. We visited for quite awhile. He was showing me a "preview" of a Nintendo game that is due out some time in April. He wanted me to see this very much, so I settled down on the couch with him and watched it for almost 30 minutes. That was a LONG preview!

The little kiddos came home at their usual time and we did our typical cinnamon toast snack with all four of them talking to me at once about their day. I tried to keep track of all of it, but I'm afraid I was more concerned about burning the toast in their toaster oven than keeping straight everyone's stories. 

I told Brendan we would open the gifts I brought for him once his parents came home from work. However, when Dylan got home from work it was just to change out of his work clothes and then have the kiddos and him pick Kelly up from work and go out for a birthday dinner for Brendan. They invited me to come to dinner with them, but I was a bit torn between just wanting to come home--my back has been bothering me the last few days, as well as my knees (yikes--I'm sounder older by the minute); so I asked Dylan if Brendan could open the gifts I brought over before they left for dinner.

Everyone tried to get in on the opening of Brendan's gifts ... but he handled it very nicely (as always).

It's difficult to see what is actually in these packages, so I'll just have to spell it out. The little square package has a cool blue magnetic shape maker (that is very difficult to describe in words). I should have taken a picture of it!

Here, Brendan is reading the 8-page birthday card I made for him that necessitated purchasing a special stapler so that I could put it all together for him.

It's very sweet how these guys enjoy my homemade cards.

Dylan, taking a closer look at the card. 

Here are two of the three Snoopy books I got for Brendan. I was hoping they didn't already have these three at the house--it turns out that they DID have one of the titles--but now it is Brendan's own personal copies. All of the kids really enjoy these books--I do too! I also got Brendan some knee, elbow and wrist pads for learning to use his skateboard (his folks got him one for Christmas!).

The grandchildren convinced me to join them for dinner, which I am very glad I did. We went to a restaurant I have never been to before, with excellent Chinese food. I was treated to my favorite--chicken fried rice AND crab rangoon! There was enough for TWO entire meals, so I ate the other half tonight for dinner--it was even better the second time around. Look how tired little Cal is (below).

I snapped 3-4 pictures before I left to go home, but I was at an awkward angle and never did get Aidan totally in any of the pictures.

It was very nice to be invited out tonight. Brendan really likes Ramen noodles, and this place had a ton of different choices mixed with all kind of yummy stuff. Cal ordered some too and ate it like a trooper--he and Brendan have similar palates and are easy to feed because of that. Erin didn't do as well with her meal, but she had eaten quite a bit with her afternoon snack, so hopefully she was okay. Aidan ordered plain rice and seemed to enjoy it too.

HAPPY 14th BIRTHDAY, Brendan. I don't suppose I can convince you to stay this age forever, so I'm not going to try. Anyway, no one in their right mind would want to be stuck in Middle School for the rest of their life! Sigh.