Aidan, dear Aidan, turns ONE!

Saturday, March 10:  TOMORROW is actually Aidan's birthday--but thankfully, it was celebrated today! I'm so glad; otherwise, I would have missed out. 

Dylan and Kelly decided to keep Aidan's first birthday a somewhat quiet and simple affair. It was all of that and it was PERFECT. 

Baby Aidan enjoyed a yummy chocolate, gluten-free cupcake and shared it with his folks, very generously. 

This is a child after my own heart -- a definite chocolate lover. 

 And dear Kelly--could you be any more tender and sweet than you are? Such a mom! Such blessed little boys to have you!

I'm not sure what Brendan is saying to me here ... mostly because I am posting more than a week late and I can't for the life of me remember!

 "Uncle Nick" was an invited guest. He is well loved and important to this family!

 Aidan received lots of lovely presents. His little heart was happy.

 His little party was exactly at his morning nap time, however, and he was VERY sleepy.

 But Aidan is not one to miss out on social doings just because he is a little bit sleepy. This child loves being with people.

Brendan liked the little FP tugboat I gave Aidan. The Captain's name is MORTIMER, Mortimer Montgomery to be exacty. Brendan liked the name very much but struggled to remember it! 

 Wee Aidan is beyond tired in the next pics, so Dylan was reading him his favorite stories ...

 Aidan's god-parents were at the party--such beautiful folk they are ... I apologize, but I cannot remember their names.

 I love this of Kelly and baby Aidan ...

 Brendan decided to hang upside-down for awhile ...

So ... HAPPY BIRTHDAY Aidan Paul! I hope and pray that you come to know Jesus as King and Savior at a young age, dear little man, and go on to love and serve Him all the days of your life. Your Grandma Carol loves you.

The LAST Thursday wrestling meet

Thursday, March 8:  It was the boys' last home wrestling meet of the season, so I showed up to watch. Kaity-rascal was there too and made sure I was entirely distracted throughout the entire meet (smile).

Wrestling is kind of a tedious sport, but it has been good for these guys. Christopher truly enjoys being part of a group of kids who do sports together. I'm very glad about that. He has made some good friends that way. 

 And wrestling has been especially good for Matthew. I believe he has gained some confidence and courage from this season of wrestling. I think it would be pretty scary to go out there and face someone who could potentially "pin" you in 30 seconds. Matt proved to be a good fighter and I am quite proud of him. Thank you, Lord, for the ways you teach these boys about life.

Kaity and I were in and out, so to speak ... mostly OUT in the hallways playing hide-'n-seek or whatever else Kaitlynn Jane had in mind. She is something else, and I love her to pieces. 

ANOTHER Wednesday?!!

March 7, Wednesday:  Brendan and I were "forced" into another Wednesday because "the boys" have their last home wrestling match on Thursday and I do not want to miss it!

Brendan was all about TRAINS tonight ... 

 Brendan has very definite ideas about his track layout ...

If I get TOO interfering, he just tells me: "No, grandma ... not like that ... like THIS!" 

He did give me a tiny bit of liberty to build near the end, just to appease me I think. 

You are precious, Brendan! 

After a few hours of trains (I'm not kidding!), Brendan wandered back to the toy room to play with the marble run. 

 He was quite impressed with Matthew's creation from the weekend and decided he would build some of his own.

Frankly, it is not a simple matter to build a successful marble run; however, Brendan persisted and came up with a very good design of his own. He was pleased. 

 To finish out our time together, we ate CHOCOLATE ice cream in BLUE cones ...

 Mr. Brendan was exceptionally pleased about this ...

 You are loved, dear Little Fellow ...

... so SO much.

Kaity and Matt tonight ...

Saturday, March 3:  I had Kaity and Matt over tonight. Christopher was invited to a birthday party, so he was busy getting ready to attend that; and Emma was involved with home work and other things too, so she stayed at home. It's OK. I need to learn to "let go" and realize (somehow) that Emma is growing up and has other interests. She knows I love her to pieces--I can't even put into words how precious she is to me! And Chris too! 

But Kaity and Matt DID come over and we had a really nice time together. Kaity loves to play. We hauled out the PlayMobile camping toys and had ourselves a lot of fun setting up the playground and all of the camping stuff. We had a little adventure with the family cooking and interacting. 

These are great toys, by the way, and not too expensive--worth every penny actually! There is a lot of play value in them. It was fun to just watch the two of them go at it for awhile. I think Matthew had fun with us tonight, even without Christopher being here. Sometimes those two can get on each others' nerves I think. It was rather peaceful here tonight! 

There are plenty of art supplies at hand, and it's great the way the kids know where everything is and just help themselves. I love to watch kids do art, don't you? They are so free and happy and they do wonderful pictures, I think. 

We also played in the play room (not pictured) with the marble run. Matthew made a very interesting one and then we had races.

So thankful for my grandchildren. What a wonderful privilege to spend time with them, listen to them, cook meals for them, love them. Thank you, Lord. 

When I brought Kaity and Matt back to their house, their Uncle Shane was over--Jesse was problem-solving a computer issue. It was nice to see Shane unexpectedly like that. And I got to see Emma for a little bit too. She was telling me about reading, "To Kill a Mockingbird" and how much she loved the story. This is one of my all-time favorite books! I read it in 7th grade. I have the exact same copy Emma has! I've decided to re-read it--it's been forever ago that I've read the story. I will think of my dear Emma as I read it ...

a-MAZ-ing!

Wednesday evening, the last of February:  I picked up Brendan after work today. Thursday doesn't work for us this week because it is Nana's birthday tomorrow and I have plans with her. So I switched days this week (again) for Brendan. 

 Brendan got introduced to my basketball hoop tonight. He liked it. He got bonked on the head a few times ... but he said he was alright and that he thought the hoop was "a-MAZ-ing, grandma!"

 Brendan received a fancy pen at school today because he was a February birthday and so this was the gift he received from Trinitas. He thought the pen was pretty "a-MAZ-ing, grandma!" This "a-MAZ-ing" word is a new thing this week with Brendan. In the last few weeks, though, I've noticed that Brendan will say: "I have to tell you something ..." and I'll ask him "What, Brendan?" and then he will go on to tell me something that is on his dear heart. I'm fixing dinner while Brendan is using his new pen.

 After dinner I got out our ZOO sticker book. I was rather surprised how much Brendan liked this book. "These elephant stickers are a-MAZ-ing, grandma!" Brendan enjoys so many little things in life. He is such a treasure.

 We actually went through most of this sticker book. As we did the stickers, Brendan would ask all about what I knew about the animals--I would tell him what little I actually knew (!!) ... sometimes he would add an interesting fact or two of his own in the sweetest-sounding voice with an occasional lisp or two--ah! Can I stop time right here? Can I please? My heart just loves these precious times with this small person.

 We also played with our finger puppets for awhile. Brendan put on a little puppet show about two bumble bees. One was the worker bee, he told me, and one was the queen. "She's the one that makes all the babies, grandma!"

 The story went something like this: There were two bees. One was a worker bee, so he was very busy working. He flew into the hive one day and BIT the Queen! She was busy making babies, you know." And that was the end!

Brendan said the Queen was very mad at the worker bee for biting her.