December 13 Tuesday's Fun

Tuesday:  I have a bunch of pictures to post from today. Nothing unusual or spectacular ... just these little loves playing. 

Do you see this toy Erin is playing with? I've had it since Jesse was a baby. At six months (!!!) he would sit in my lap and we would do these shapes over and over and over again. We had no TV at the time (for many years actually), not many toys, and Jesse found it fun to plunk the shapes in. He got very good and very fast at it too at a very young age.

I set up a straight Hot-Wheels track that was hooked up to my small book shelf in a downward slope. Cal completely loves cars. He will pick a car up, hold it out in front of himself, do a visual examination and decide whether or not it's a keeper. If it IS, he zooms it down the track. If the car doesn't meet his "standard", he throws it down and reaches for another. This particular car passed his inspection! Look at his little face checking out the features of the car!

Cal got a bunch of cars zooming down the track and eventually it led to a bunch of "cwashes" which was very thrilling and satisfying (evidently) ...

With one car in each hand, Cal scrutinizes to see which car is next on the track ...

In between zooming cars, Cal was relentlessly bringing me ornaments off my tree and placing them in my lap. Hmm.

Look at his dear little face.

THIS look is so much like his mom (below)!

I'm not sure what Cal was trying to accomplish with our pretend knife sharpener, but he got "into" it for awhile.

Erin decided we should play with the bean bags for awhile ... so we did! We put the bean bag BIN by my front door and then stood back a distance and threw them towards the bin. Not to brag or anything, but I'm a pretty good shot and getting the bean bags to sink right into the bin! Cal joined in and thought it was great fun. He shouts: "Aww ... you missed!" and makes a sad face while retrieving the erring bean bag from wherever it landed.

We played our musical Christmas tree while eating. The music and the fascination of the trains going around the tree helps to prolong eating time (which is good). Cal enjoyed watching the trains so much that he ate a whole bunch of grapes, a few apples slices, 3 helpings of Mac 'n cheese ...

... and then he got it into his head that he would THROW a grape or two (so his grapes were removed from his tray--he had already eaten a ton of grapes, so I wasn't being mean or anything), which indicated he was all done eating and getting bored.

Emma came out into the kitchen and visited with the kiddos for awhile too. I always love it when she spends time with these tiny cousins.

During our last 45 minutes, we watched some of the Pets II movie. I picked up a bunch of toys that were scattered everywhere while the movie was playing and cut down on the chaos that was all over the floor that would greet me when I return later tonight. 

I was able to get the kiddos back into my car shortly after 3:00 and we headed back to their house in time to be at the bus stop for Aidan. Cal fell asleep on the way home, but Erin stayed awake the whole time!

Late afternoon at their house:

Cal likes to play this game: "Get me, Gamma!" This is where I chase him around the place in their house that is a square hallway (that's not a very good way to describe it); but anyway, you can run around and around and chase each other (very fun). Anyway, I will start to chase him but when I get close to catching him, he will turn his little body around ...

... smile at me and then ...

GRRRRRRRR .... at me until I feign fear and terror and run in the opposite direction with him chasing me and laughing his little head off. He's amazing.

Here is Erin using her foot to eat her cereal ... why? I asked her this and she did not have a coherent answer, but soon gave up her effort because it was not working.

The kids did settle down with Aidan and Brendan to watch a few minutes of a Disney+ show they like.

I love these kiddos. It sure is a gift to be their grandma.