Long day of babysitting

Wow - what a long day yesterday was. Brayden arrived at 7am for my usual Friday babysitting, and stayed until 10:30 pm because my daughter had her company Christmas party last night. Thank goodness, the child takes a 3 hour nap in the afternoon, or I'm not sure I'd have made it through! There's a reason God invented menopause -- because women over a certain age do not have the energy to chase toddlers! But we had a fine day, long or not. We actually had a quiet day, which I think Brayden appreciates now and then. His days at daycare are filled with playing with other children, which would rarely include any quiet time. His days at home are filled with daily activities -- cleaning, shopping, etc., and Mary seems to really keep him busy and active (which is a great thing). But here, he knows we're going to take it all a bit slower and easier, and he's fine with that. First, Brayden helped me pack Grampy's lunch. I handed him the items to put in the lunch box, and he got out the napkin and bottle of water to put in. Then he had breakfast with Grampy and a few minutes of hugging and smooching, then watched Grampy leave for work. I created a sandbox area for him in our basement, and we played down there for about an hour. Then he decided he wanted to learn how to use my step exerciser, and had fun with that. That little guy has strong legs! We came upstairs and he wanted a drink and a snack, so I got him some OJ and some "crunchies" and we went into the family room, where he decided to lay on the floor with his monkey blanket and pillow and watch one of "his" movies -- these are the Baby Einstein videos that he loves so much. We often have reading time, and when we read his "Monkey book" -- his alltime favorite book here -- as I was reading, for the first time I asked him to show me the number 1, 2, etc... and he did it! Next when we were "reading" a picture book where I ask him to show me the picture of ... a drum, an owl, slippers, jammies, shovel, etc... when I asked him to show me the picture of the crayons, he did... and then he pointed to the red crayon and said, "Red"!!! I was quite impressed, of course. We played with his cars and garage, we found "Terry" (a Terry LaBonte NASCAR car that had been missing for 2 weeks) and Brayden was very happy about that. He helped me clean up the kitchen, started the dishwasher, helped put the clean dishes away, swept the kitchen floor and helped me make the bed. We didn't make it outside at all -- it was just rainy and cold and the snow has pretty much disappeared, and I wasn't up for scraping mud off Brayden's shoes and clothes. He did have a nice long bath and played with cups in the water for quite awhile. Then he wanted Grampy's bar of soap, and proceeded to wash his feet, legs and arms all by himself! Again, I was impressed! So, although it was a long day, it was a nice day, as is every day I have with my grandson!