October 11 A Callaghan Day

Wednesday:  I am getting used to having just Callaghan for a few hours every Wednesday. He is a delightful playmate!

He enjoys all of my toys SO much ... it's quite satisfying to watch him!

I try to "switch" up toys each week and find ones he hasn't played with for awhile--this works quite well actually.

This boy LOVES to eat and is not at all difficult to please when it comes to fixing a meal for him. He does have his favorite things, but he eats almost anything set before him!

Cal really loves this treehouse ...

We did some alphabet robots today too ...

And played with Baby James ...

Cal even took a split second nap with him!

But the one thing that remains a constant favorite is all of my cars ... he zooms them everywhere and makes cool engine noises too.

Mama Bear gets a lot of attention and growling from this little boy...

I love you, Little Cal! I am glad to be your Grandma!
 

October 6/7 SLEEPOVER

Friday Night:  It's official! Our FIRST sleepover! Who was my FIRST little guest?

E R I N   L U C I A !!!

She had a blast. She wore me out! It was fun, though, and very worth being worn out.

Sweet Baby James was a hit. I told her all about my new baby doll two weeks ago when he arrived. Erin has plenty of baby dolls and she really loves them. This little doll, though, is life-size, is super soft and looks kind of real! Erin tried on several "outfits" that Dylan wore when he was a baby just this size. She was thrilled.

Look at her sweet little face.

Erin got right to cooking a meal for all of our babies ...

So I went into MY kitchen and fixed us something to eat for dinner. It worked out well. Erin brought a bunch of "food" to the table to share with me.

Erin was also very happy about the bunk beds. She announced that she was going to sleep on the TOP bunk, and I just couldn't talk her out of it! I was a little bit worried about her getting up and down at night (which she did multiple times)--but Erin has always been a good climber! You should see her at a playground!

I couldn't even count the times she went up and down ... up and down ... 

We played with these little dolls for quite awhile too. These are the ones my friend, Gloria, gave us this summer. They are so much fun.

Back in the bedroom, Erin decided to use the pot-bellied stove as a "grill" and she put some of my magnetic fish on the "coals" and cooked them for awhile to give to Baby James.

Erin was super serious about the entire process ...

So you might ask--how did she sleep? Here's the thing. At about 7:30, Erin announced that she was tired and needed to go to bed. "I go to bed at 7:00 at MY house!" So I thought she was seriously tired! We got our jammies on, brushed our teeth, said our prayers ... so it was nearly 8:00 when I tucked her in.

But 2 seconds later, she was up! Wide awake! I might have known the first one was a fluke! I decided to have us watch a little video that we've seen before--but it's such a quiet little story, and so well done: "Stick Man". I opened up some popcorn, put it in my special popcorn bucket, got Erin a nice cozy blanket to wrap herself in, and we watched the video, ate our popcorn, and THEN got more serious about bed time.

After about an hour of trying everything I could think of to "wear her out", Erin announced she could hear a DRIPPING noise coming from my hall closet. WHAT? And do you know something? Erin was absolutely right! There was a steady drip coming from the furnace ceiling! Drip! Drip! Drip! I called Terry, he came over and inspected it, he formed a little spout where the water could collect into a bowl, and we called it a night. By this time, I WAS TIRED! It was after 10:00 and Erin was going strong. We had put together a bunch of puzzles in the spare room and played with a whole bunch of other toys Erin kept pulling off the shelves, etc.

I finally gave up and decided to lay down in the lower bunk and just stay there for the rest of the night! I think it was close to 10:30 by the time Erin fell asleep--she sure rolls around a LOT! But I fell asleep too, so that was good. 

Saturday Morning: Erin woke up at 7AM to use the bathroom and since we had such a good rest, I decided to get up and get started with our morning. Erin was super glad to do just that!

We did a whole bunch of stuff this morning. We drew thumbprints . . .

We painted with our water color paints . . .

We fed Baby James some breakfast . . .

Erin played the piano for a little bit . . .

 We watched the pretty birds outside my side window (right near the piano) . . . Erin loved it when they would come to the bird feeder that is attached to my window--I love it too!

The hours flew on by and pretty soon it was time to gather Erin's things and get ready to drive back to her house.

For a very first sleepover with grandma, I think it was a success! I'm pooped! But I am happy.

October 5 with Kaity

Thursday:  I snapped a few pictures of Kaity tonight over at Altitude--nothing worth posting because I remain UNqualified to take any action pictures whatsoever ... but we had so much fun being there tonight. We are recognizing more and more familiar faces and getting somewhat acquainted with people. 

I don't take pictures of other people's children because that would be rude; but there is one small boy who comes almost every Thursday night with his dad. This boy is one of the most athletic little kids I have ever seen. He is so natural in his ability--it's amazing. He jumps SO high and does so well. He is perfectly comfortable using his body and has so much fun. His dad introduced himself tonight--Mason is his name. Seems like a nice fellow. I like how he and his son interact with each other. 

Kaity makes friends with almost ALL of the kids who are jumping. Tonight, there was another boy who was Middle Eastern in origin--perhaps farther than Middle East--maybe even Indian--anyway his hair was dyed royal blue. I'm not kidding. We've seen him at Altitude before and he had Kaity always play rough together. Kaity calls him Blueberry (his hair has been BLUE for several weeks now). He's a good jumper too!

Kaity did a front flip tonight and actually STUCK it. She's been working on this for awhile and getting better at it all the time. Good for you, Kaity!