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!

Our first romp in the snow

About 4:00 pm today (after his 3 1/2 hour nap!), Brayden and I headed out in the cold and snow -- for his first time playing in the snow. I bundled him up -- while he was napping I cut up some leftover fleece I had for a quick scarf from him -- and hi ho hi ho, off to the snow. In total, we had about an inch and a half of snow, which was just right for his first adventure. I showed him how to make a snowball. He didn't like the "making" part so much as the throwing part -- and Umma was automatically the target of his first throw! We shovelled the walkway and the upper part of the driveway. He did like shovelling, but liked even more showing me the spots I'd missed. He did not like the little snowbanks we created when we shovelled, and set out to un-shovel those. He liked walking in the deeper parts of the snow -- and walking backwards seemed even more adventurous! I really need to get a sled soon! By the way, that hat was his Uncle Jeff's -- at least 15 years old or more!

Our first snow of the year

We woke up this morning to about an inch of snow -- enough to pretty well cancel schools and create havoc on the highways here in Ohio. If we were back in New Hampshire, no one would even notice just an inch of snow on the ground.

Brayden is here today for the first time in almost two weeks! He is sleeping as I write this, and I've promised him I will take him out to play in the snow when he gets up from his nap. He's excited! (OK, so am I!) I'll try and take some pictures.

Today, Brayden learned how to climb up the two-step stepladder on his own so he can get up to the aquarium and watch the fish. He spent about 30 minutes climbing up...and down...and up... and down.

Two magical hours

Yesterday (Sunday) I went to see Mary and Brayden at their house. After visiting for a half hour or so, I asked Brayden if he wanted to go to Jungle Jim's and, of course, he said "Ssssss..." which is YES. LOL So off we went. There are grocery stores and then there are grocery shopping experiences and Jungle Jim's is definitely the latter. I had a small list of things that I needed to buy, but we were going there more for the experience than the shopping...and we had an absolute ball. Brayden quickly decided he liked the concept of "free samples"... which Jungle Jim's is known for. Brayden is not normally willing to try new foods, so I was surprised when he tried the following samples: Spiced turkey (didn't like it), Boarshead American cheese (loved it), oriental cole slaw (loved it), green olives (didn't like it - spit it out faster than it went in), artichoke (ate it but wasn't sure about it), water crackers (loved them), brie cheese (liked it but preferred his cracker without it), two kinds of oranges (loved them), chocolate English cookie wafers (REALLY loved them!), vaniall orea-style cookie (what's not to like?), and pepperoni pizza (gave up his second cookie for pizza). While shopping, he picked out the following to take home with him: a granny smith apple, a naval orange, a package of grapes, two kiwi's, and bananas. When we got to the store, I gave him a "job" of finding the bananas. My goodness, he got so excited when he finally saw them! LOL I also bought him a half-pound of the American cheese he liked so much. He also saw so many things that made him smile: A (real) stop light in the middle of the store, two kinds of live fish, live lobsters, larger-than-life rabbit and duck that played music, monkeys, elephants that sprayed water out their trunks, more elephants, a giraffe, and lots more. I bought just four bags of groceries but had two great hours with my grandson. We laughed, we giggled, we learned and we just plain enjoyed our time together!