Kaity brought lots of smiles to my face this afternoon ...

Oh my word ... Christopher is TWELVE!

Twelve years already? STOP! I just cannot believe how the years go by so quickly. Christopher, you are growing up so fast. I made this little collage of a few pictures of you from this last year.

You have such a great smile, Chris! And it was very fun to watch you play football this year. You are learning the game and your moves much better! 

 It was fun to watch you open your gifts at your party last night ... everything from NERF guns to LEGOS, and more ...

 Emma got herself all dressed to the nines for your party ...

 And YOU decided to have a piggy-backed piece of birthday cake!

 Kaity-girl was very enthused about your party too ...

Emma painted you a special picture for your birthday. I love this picture of you two. 

Twelve is a pretty big deal, Chris. Only six more years until you are eighteen. Praying that you will learn at a young age how AWESOME the Lord is, how much He loves you, what great plans He has for your life. I pray that you will know Him and serve Him and allow Him to have His way all the days of your life. I love you tons, Chris!

Another sweet Kaity-day ...

So it seems that Kaity and I have finally reached the point where we have a nice pattern to our visits. You see, Kaity had to get used to the Beach House! At first, she wanted to play with everything ALL AT ONCE--and she could hardly contain herself or concentrate. But I think she is more relaxed here now since she has investigated every shelf, bin, crate, box--that she can get her hands on.

When I picked her up yesterday, Jesse and Diana were telling me that Kaity is really "into horses" lately ... horses and trains. I do not have any toy trains, other than puzzles here; but I did remember a little wind-up horse in my collection somewhere around here. 

I took it out and handed it to Kaity. She examined it for a minute, not knowing that it could be wound up and gallop away ... 

 When I wound it up for her and it took off, she was SO delighted--look at her laughing at it!

 "How do you make it go, Grandma?" Kaity asked.

I showed her how to wind it up ... 

 ... and away it galloped!

 Look at her beautiful, happy little face! Isn't she something?

One of Kaity's favorite things is my basket with musical instruments. She plays with them every week. She is not very impressed, however, with my piano--nor does she want ME to play it either! But that's OK. Perhaps she will grow in her musical appreciation (!!). She especially loves my Bedouin flute from Israel and my blue recorder flute.

Last week I found out that Kaity loves to help do the dishes, especially since she gets to wear a fancy yellow glove like grandma wears! AND she gets to have her very own scrub brushes and bubbles in the sink to play with. 

 Kaity is a very hard little worker ...

 She clearly is delighted in the whole process.

 She is very tedious about her cleaning ...

 When I thanked her for all of her help, she responded with a very sweet "You are welcome, grandma."

We also played for a very long time with several of my soft stuffed animals. Kaity had a whole family of stuffed bears who were interacting with each other, and she found two of my little stuffed lions that she referred to as "pumas." So cute. Kaity, you are precious.

Little Fellow looks so grown up ...

Being a grandma is a wonderful thing, and there is nothing to equal it anywhere (in my experience at least). I was asked to babysit this dear little person last night because his folks were going to see a play, starring their very good friend!

I was SO surprised when I came up the front steps to hear absolute SCREAMING coming from inside the house! It was Brendan screaming, "Grandma's here! Grandma's here!" Oh my word. When I opened the door, he was jumping up and down, running in circles, and smiling from ear to ear. AND he had this fabulous-looking haircut!

Dylan and Kelly said Brendan, for some reason, had not been interested in eating dinner before they left, so Kelly instructed me on a few quickie items that I could feed Brendan when he got hungry. Brendan ate quite a few sliced cheeses, an apple, and a nice big slice of Kelly's homemade pumpkin bread (which was delicious).

Afterwards, Brendan and I just played and played. He is so much fun to play with.

He is a silly and funny little child ... but not the kind of silly that is foolish, if you know what I mean. He just likes to ham it up and mess around ... but he is not at all foolish.

I asked him to give me a kiss and here is his wonderful pucker face ...

But when I took his picture, he cracked up! Possibly because he was calling me "Carol" instead of "Grandma Carol." I told him that I LOVED being called grandma, and I thought being called Grandma Carol was pretty nice too ... but anyone in the whole world could call me Carol. 

We talked it over ... and over. So I told him every time he called me just plain CAROL, I would have to call him GEORGE. "But that's not my name!" Brendan protested.

We tried it a few times where he would randomly refer to me as "Carol" and I would respond by over-emphasizing the name GEORGE in his direction. For some reason, I always have reverted to using "George" to refer to anyone who was irksome, although there was a particular person for whom I used it (eventually) as a term of endearment (honestly!).

The more Brendan thought about it, the funnier it got! He is such a funny and darling chunk of a boy.

I had Brendan try on Kelly's costume wig ... he really didn't want anything at all to do with it and yanked it off his head immediately after I snapped this picture--he did manage to give me a tiny smile first!

Once in our pjs we settled down to watch "The Gruffalo's Child" (which Brendan knows verbatim) and enjoyed snuggling and cuddling while viewing that really entertaining story. After it was over, I told Brendan it was potty time and bedtime. He protested both, but was so entirely exhausted, that he went along with my directives without too much fuss. I tucked this darling into bed kissing his soft face and rubbing his little back ... he was sleeping in two minutes. Love him.

Mondays are Kaity days ...

I think that I can finally and truthfully say that Mondays are Kaity days. Since Monday is my day off work, we have gotten into a routine of spending the afternoon together. I usually pick Kaity up at 1:00 and return her home by 5:00 or so, depending on our activities.

We usually share lunch together, although Kaity does not eat much at one time. She is used to just eating little bits at a time throughout the day, I guess. But I do manage to get a few healthy items into her tummy while she is here. 

This last Monday promised good weather ... possibly the last good-weather-Monday for a very long time. Kaity LOVES to play at a good playground. We have found one that isn't too terribly far from where she lives. She just loves it there so much. AND when Kaity is playing at a playground, her little personality really comes out.

She is a tiresome explorer!

She laughs almost the entire time she is there!

She is constantly, forever and always, on the MOVE ...

She climbs and swings and slides and RUNS the whole time we are outside together.

There are nice hiking trails at this special park ... Wahlfield County Park it is called (if I am remembering correctly). I was trying to convince Kaity to go hiking with me. She wasn't very interested until a little pug puppy we had met on the playground went romping down the pathway that led to the woods.

I asked Kaity if she wanted to follow the puppy ... and naturally, she did! So we went on a woodsy adventure together. Kaity found herself a really nice walking stick and forged ahead.

It is a beautiful place to hike and explore. WHY haven't I hiked here before!??

Kaity! You are so sweet!

Kaity is happiest when she is running. She is a very fast runner!

I finally caught up to her on the bridge, and she was very curious to see the little creek ...

I asked Kaity to slow down so that I could get her picture .... she seemed somewhat annoyed with me, but complied.

We stayed out in the woods for 20 minutes or so (which is quite a long time for Kaity). When it was time to hike back to the playground, she rode piggy-back for awhile--that was fun too.

 "Look at ME, Grandma! I'm flying! I'm a bird and I'm FLYING!"

Such happy pictures of this little pixie.