My little chum ...

Thurday, April 12:  Remember how I found the pedestrian tunnel that goes underneath Cannonsburg Road? I KNEW Brendan would LOVE it and HE DID! On our way to my house last night, we parked on the side-street and walked down the hill to explore the tunnel. We walked UNDER Cannonsburg Road not far from where I live. Brendan thought it was super cool. 

 Brendan was telling me an entire account about trains and lighthouses ...

 Notice how intense he is ...

 It was quite a story. Too bad I'm an old girl and cannot for the life of me remember WHAT he was telling me. I remember it being interesting and wishing I had a video of him talking about it ... but WHAT on earth was he talking about?! Yikes. It's tough getting old.

 What I love, though, is Brendan's ability to communicate and how much he loves telling me stuff. He usually starts out by saying, "Grandma? I have to tell you something ... " And I usually respond by saying, "What is it, honey?" And then he tells me!

 Brendan went back to the playroom and got out my flexi-track and built himself a very good race course. We turned off all the lights and watched the cars race around in the dark for awhile.

 And THEN we got out our Hot Wheels tracks and played with that stuff for awhile too ...

 But for some reason last night, Brendan was super into my stuffed animals. I have a lot of them and have had many of them since before Emma Joy was born (almost 16 years ago!). But we got "pretending" stuff with them and Brendan organized a "meeting" with everyone present. Each animals gave a little short account of how they were purchased and from where ... i.e. the Zoo gift shop, Meijer's clearance rack, the internet, etc.

 Brendan got busy and organized all of them into families ... some of the guys had mommy's and daddy's ... but a lot of them were orphans whose parents had "died" (according to Brendan). 

 Brendan enjoyed himself so much, just sitting and talking to everyone. Of course, I DO animate them for him and each of them has a special name. For example, our little giraffe is named JOSIE. And the little blue seal is SQUIRT. Mama Owl's baby is OLLIE, etc.

 I've been trying to collect as many different kinds of animals as I can. I have always loved stuffed animals.

 Paco the Pig was telling Brendan how he was in a whole pile of "other Paco's" at grandma's church many years ago--there was a comedian there who had done a whole routine with Paco and after the performance, grandma Carol picked out THIS Paco and brought him home. Paco thought it was silly that there were so many other Paco's; hence his dubious facial expression.

 We discovered Mama Bear has SEVEN little ones. The children all live in the little basket that Brendan is bringing over to the "meeting." 

 He gathered Mama Bear's babies all around her, very lovingly by the way. Brendan has been watching re-runs of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. I love Mr. Roger's. Brendan has a very tender little heart and it just spills out of him when he pretends with the animals. 

 Well, I certainly enjoyed our time together!

We drove back to Brendan's house and I read him the story about Eyore losing his tail, and another book about two pigs who were friends (Puddle and Toot). Baby Aidan came in to Brendan's room and gave us all kisses good-night. It was wonderful.