there once was an old granny....

 I remember chatting with old people back when I wasn't old yet.  I had all these kids, and they would tell me how they used to be in my shoes, but now they had grandkids...the general consensus was:  they were great and fantastic, but the best part was that you could send them home and phew, put your feet up.  I harrumphed BIG TIME at that!  little did I know!

This past weekend, I GRAMMA-ed.  The boys arrived on Saturday morning, with their extra clothes, and their jammies.  I hurried mom and dad out the door, no prolonged good-byes.  The kids will be fine, go have fun, leave before they realize you're leaving.  Plus, I kind of know how to take care of kids.

Well.  Seems I've forgotten some of it, like how tiring it is, and how I tend to lose my coffee.  The little guy is only shy of 18 months, and is more curious than is good for him, or for me.  Old me, who has to follow him around.  I thought we were baby-proofed, silly me!  

CRASH!  Me:  What was that?  Wulf:  Tennyson knocked down a plant.  But don't worry Grandma, I'll clean it up.  (Why would I worry, he's almost four, he can clean it up.  Not really.  I picked up the plant, and got out the little vacuum for them to fight over, as all children like to vacuum up dirt.)

(My poor aloe plant!)

They warned me that T. poops twice a day.  I rolled my eyes.  I am not a-scared of poopy diapers.  Well.  That little stinker put his hand down there, quicker than a flash, and oh my, I needed another few hands to deal with it.  I managed, but wow, am I out of practice?

Wulf likes to keep busy, and he's always got these good ideas of what we should do next.  Grandma, can we play with sand?  Grandma, can we play in water?  Grandma, can you take me outside, and can we put salt in the snowplow truck?  Grandma, can I paint?   For the record, he did play in water (a toy coffee maker, at the table with a towel and lots of water and little cups.  He may have helped himself to the dogs water, filled that toy coffee maker right up, before Grandma got to getting him some water.). I also took him outside, AND let him fill the back of his snow plow truck with salt.  I also played games, built towers, read stories, and sang songs.  

Wiping bottoms and noses and filling sip-py cups, the day goes by so slowly yet, oh my goodness, dinner time?  How did I ever do this?  I had made meatballs on Friday, knowing that both boys really like them, and they were super easy to heat up for them.  They had some pasta, too, but liked the meatballs better.  

This morning, Wulf helped me make waffles, and I cut up some strawberries.  Tennyson loved the waffles until he started having some strawberries, he liked those way better, so of course that meant he wouldn't eat one more bit of waffle, spit some out even.  harrumph.  okay.  

This whole circus takes some patience.  Tennyson feeds pretzels to the dog, snuggles up to Orange Guy, aka The Claw.

He somehow didn't get a single scratch this weekend.

(Orange Guy tries to start trouble with Sunny, but Sunny doesn't care.  They get along just fine)

Wulf on the deck with his salt truck...

Tenny loves bugging the dogs.  They don't mind, he makes up for it by dropping the best crumbs.

Grampa got out ice cream sandwiches.

They sure kept me hopping.  Tennyson went to bed like an angel.  But, he woke up a few hours later.  I rocked him for a bit, put him back down, and yes, back to sleep.  I still have it.

Wulf insisted on mopping both the kitchen and living room floors after Tenny went to bed, because apparently I had promised him earlier that he could mop later.  That boy doesn't forget anything.  He simply loves my new mop, squeezing the trigger and spraying floor cleaner everywhere, what's not to like?

He kept getting out of bed, so I talked to him, he said he needed warm milk.  Okay, I said, I'll make a deal:  I'll make you warm milk if you stay in bed and go to sleep.  He said:  Deal!  We dealt, and he went to sleep like a champ.  Ahh.

After a shower and getting in bed before midnight, knowing the boys would be up early, I was still awake thinking about things when, around one, Tennyson woke up.  dang.  He was pretty upset.  I got my cozy warm robe on, and my slippers, and wrapped him in his blank-ie, and came out here to my big comfy chair...we rocked and rocked, he finally fell asleep at almost three.  Sonja so nicely set the pack and play up here in the living room, I put him in it, and conked out on the couch from 3:30 to 7:30, not terrible, but YAWN, I do NOT still have it!

Today I made a yummy dinner:  the copy-cat Chik-fil-A nuggets.  I cut the chicken breast into small bite sized pieces, soaked them in dill pickle juice...then into some flour with salt and pepper, cayenne, a dash of ginger, and a few spoons of confectioner's sugar.  A dip into egg and milk, than back into the flour mixture, and onto a baking sheet (three of them, actually) with parchment paper, and lots of olive oil, roasted in a 400 degree oven...so good!  Evelyn was here, she roasted up some asparagus.  I put seasoned fries in the air fryer, and what a nice dinner!  Margaret and Adrian were here to pick up the kids, they stayed for a while...

The kids are off to the big city to their big concert, and Sonja is studying for a big test.  I need to go pack, as in 12 hours, we are leaving for the airport.  The kids will get home just before we have to leave, but they already packed for Florida.   

So I had a tiring but utterly satisfying weekend.  

This all being said, I am not sticking my head in the sand concerning world events.  I know what's going on, don't know what to believe or why it's happening, my soul aches for the mamas who have sons dragged off to war, and for the families and children and babies, for wives of soldiers, for grand parents, for the unnecessary wreckage of homes and businesses.  I saw footage of a gas station, cars lined up forever, to gas up and flee, and one of the cars was my exact car.  It's just so awful, and I don't understand why men are so hell-bent on destruction.  War.  It's detestable.   I just don't get it.... We have friends in Ukraine, one of our dear friends lived there for a while with her husband, and moved back to the U.S., but his family is still there...pray for them!