Grandgirl fun time

As a grandparent I’m loving those one day school closures for holidays or teacher in service training because then we get a day with the first grade grandgirl as happened yesterday.

She loves cats and her Papa so while they were coloring together she made him a cat picture to hang. I got my hand held and told that “I like to come to your house”. We took turns turning the jump rope out on the patio while the pup reveled in being able to be outside and have a chew bone.

All 3 of us plus the pup walked to the park and enjoyed various things there. Then Papa and she watched “the school of rock” while I made some soup. Add in some reading time, playing with the pup, chatting and quite a bit of eating (a growing girl for sure!) and it was a great day helped along by a Spring like sunny day.

Week 32: Family visit, camp for 6 year old and project updates

Just had 2 nights and a full day with our older son and DIL as they stopped on their way further North for an annual extended family visit. They will stop on their way back too.

Nana and Papa camp started Wednesday. We agreed the theme was “Anything Fun” so the first day was games, crafts, going to the park for the climbing wall, an ice cream outing and having neighbor kids over to play. She also had us do a pretend cooking competition where she mimicked the announcer so perfectly that we all were laughing a lot! 

Other highlights "camp" for me were that she wants to hold hands when we walk anywhere, how happy she and the pup are together, that she was a trooper while we went to the rock and stone yard to decide what to buy, how creative her play has become and that mostly she is cheerful all day! 

We wrapped up our 3 day camp with seeing the new Little Mermaid movie at a funky movie theater in Oakland that has couches and other kinds of chairs for seating. We also bought dinner there and ate it while watching.

The removal of all the mulch and weed barrier from the backyard revealed that they had covered 2 drains (!!!) and there were lots of operating drain pipes close to the surface and some old ones that weren't connected to anything. Also lots of 3 year old termite bait stations to dig up. Sigh. What is done for staging a property to sell.

On a positive note, having to lay out the flagstone vs gravel vs planting areas has gotten us a little excited about the outcome of this unexpected & expensive project. Now to solve the how to fix the slippery when wet paint that was used on the large patio. It says right in the product description that it is slippery when wet - DUH!

The vertical blind for the balcony sliding door was installed and now we know how crooked the house is! The installer had a heck of a time figuring out what would look best and ended up aligning it with the sides of the door frame so the panels would hang in line with them. We are happy with the color and texture we chose and that it will help keep some heat out as the afternoon sun comes in there full force.

Our sons are busy!

 I got an email from my older son saying they made it to Portugal after a 35 hour trip from Malaysia where they were visiting a friend and then they slept for 13 hours. I would say that it pays to be young but they are in their early 50’s. He did say that the upside was watching Casablanca on the way to Casablanca! There must have been other stops or long layovers but now they have 3 months in Portugal to see how they like staying in one place and exploring from there. This stay is a home exchange which is also a first for them.

Our younger son called while he was driving with his 6 year old to buy some specific Pokémon cards so she could make her own deck. She asked me what kind of “energy” I would be and since I don’t know Pokémon and am worn out all I could come up with was “ low” energy. She corrected me to say I was happy energy 🥰

When I asked how being a big sister was going she said “good” and added that the baby is heavy. At not quite 6.5 pounds not really lol. Our son said the baby is eating, peeing and pooping gangbusters but is nocturnal. Anyone familiar with shifting newborn sleep schedules? I suggested he Google it and he thought that was a good idea. She was just 4 days old yesterday so they are busy and quite tired but our DIL is feeling much better than they expected given having a C-section which is wonderful.

I’ll get to see the baby after we move at the end of March or early April.

Happy 2nd Birthday

It was way fun to spend time with an almost 2 year old granddaughter for 3 days. She is strong, smart, creative, focused and knows what she wants. The 2 year old drama is there too of course.

We had extra time with her because her daycare was closed Friday because of the fires. We spent the time singing silly songs, marching around and much more. All the time we were there was spent indoors because the wildfires in N Cal made the air quality awful.

The birthday party was a success although she was mostly focused on playing as usual and not that interested in the decorations LOL. Many more paper airplanes were made than were hung although Hubby and Auntie made mobiles of them to hang outside too in place of balloons. It was really cute! There was even a toy plane cake topper.

Our drive home included lots of discussion about if we will move again to be close to her now that my FIL has died and, if so, how we will make a decision about location and timing. We are still tired from the last move but will probably eventually make this one. Lots to consider.

Oh Baby - 7 months old and lots of fun

I already can check off one item on my Summer Bucket List because we just came home after 3 days with our 7 month old granddaughter, younger son and DIL. What fun we had and it was a good reminder that we really enjoy doing things with children.

Not only were we happy witnesses to her newly learned skill of clapping, pounding 2 toys together and untying Pooh-bah's shoelaces, but we got a kick our of riding the Merry-go-round and steam train at the park. Baby swim time was a blast as she splashed water all over her face and kicked like crazy while one of us doting adults floated her around the pool.

Fortunately our dog coped well and even let everyone pet her. And the visit was so worth the 7 hour drive each way. Can't wait until we do it again.

Off to see the Grand-baby; Oh and her parents too

We are heading out in a bit to drive to Berkeley to spend a long weekend with our younger son, DIL and that precious 7 mo old granddaughter! This will be an adventure and first, we hope, of many such trips.

First of all, we are taking our dog. She has met their dog but not their cat and never been to their home. Her "just get over it" immersion therapy continues!

We are babysitting the night we arrive. They scored tickets to see Hamilton in San Francisco and we offered to make the logistics easier. Hope she goes to sleep easily.

Their dog is scheduled for surgery on Friday to have a tumor removed. If the vet has to show up for jury duty it will be postponed a week and we will all take the grand-baby swimming instead.

Monday we reverse the drive.

Can't wait to get the weekend started.

BTW, right now we are being referred to as Pooh-bah and Nana! Hubby when asked joked and said he wanted to be called The Grand Poobah and that has stuck. My DIL is Grandma as she has an older grandson so we are trying Nana for me. We'll see what the little one decides to call us when she can talk.

May: Week 1

We had to remind ourselves last night that we only arrived in our new home on April 19th and moved in on April 20th! Lots accomplished although I can't seem to list much for this past week.

Getting settled into our home has mostly taken priority over exercise and enjoyment. That will need to change soon. So what did we accomplish?

• Decided not to paint all the walls  Decision: Paint feature wall & 3 dark ceilings; touch up wall paint; we will do it ourselves so we have now saved $3,000 which pays for the new water heater and golf clubs for my husband.

• Unpacked some art work and a few more boxes; started clearing out the garage by putting all the boxes we are saving for a cousin's move into the garage attic.

• Bought and set up a new multi-function printer. We went with a more expensive Brother one as the ink costs are much less over the expected lifetime.

• Had some fun and personal time. Hubby bought a set of golf clubs and tried out the 9 hole course. We took some walks together and alone. I went to a musical performance and to the library. 

• We had brunch in Santa Barbara with our son, DIL and 5 mo old granddaughter as they were there for an event on her side - happy day.
  

• Later that day we had dinner at a restaurant on the Ventura pier with a friend who was in town from Atlanta.

She's already got my heart in her hands

 

So here she is just because I am a first time Grandma and am so happy about that!

We are grandparents!

Our precious granddaughter arrived in the world on Sunday and all is well with her and her parents. So excited!