Memorial Day

I'm not much into schmaltz. However, I thought this link from my cousin Gayle was beautiful. It gave me goose bumps. Of course, I've always been a sucker for bagpipes.

We also went to McDonald's.

Yesterday I told you about going to Chattanooga to visit Cohen and Cora and their folks. Wednesday of last week was their anniversary. I took care of the kids that night while Lydia and Geron went on a date--according to Geron, the first date they'd had since Cohen was born! I contemplated ordering a pizza for supper, but instead decided to take the kids to McDonald's.

I told you in yesterday's blog about the difficulties of getting Cohen into that car seat--a bowling ball with legs (and chubby ones, at that). Cora wasn't so hard, since she no longer is in a five-point harness. About three or four miles into the trip, Cora started wondering where Mommy/Daddy were. I told her they were on a date, but we were going to McDonald's. McDonald's wasn't exactly where I remembered it, and I guess the ride seemed a little long to her. She got excited when she saw "my McDonald's".

She was really good about not running away from me in the parking lot, which was helpful, since I had to haul the bowling ball and his diaper bag (which seemed to weigh almost as much as he did). Ordering was not a problem, finding a table was not a problem, trying to figure out what to do about the drinks was a little more challenging, but still not a problem. The first problem arose when, true to form, two minutes into the meal, Cora announced, "I need to go potty." As we say at our house, strange terlet syndrome. So I hauled Cohen out of the high chair, grabbed my purse, and took them to the bathroom. She really didn't need to go, which was good, because I sort of had my hands full with her brother.

She had chicken McNuggets. The McDonald's had a play area. I told her she had to eat her McNuggets before she could go to the play area. She cooperated and ate the two she had on the table. Then she crawled on the floor and picked up the other two that she had dropped down there. I stopped her before she ate them. She got her straw off the floor and stuck it back in her cup before I caught her on that. Anyway, the meal was over, so we went to the play area.

She seemed just a little hesitant at first about climbing around with the other kids, but pretty soon I spotted her feet coming out of one of the tunnel slides. She seemed contented, the kids who were there were playing nicely, and I just smiled and basked in being the grandma of two extra cute little kids. A little girl younger than Cora came over to me pretty soon pushing a high chair, which I figured was for Cohen. I thanked her but kept him in my lap.

We planned to go from McDonald's to their church for the Wednesday evening service and children's activities. About twenty minutes before time for the service to start, I decided to call Cora out of the play area. She was nowhere in sight, which puzzled me, but I figured she was in a tube slide and would pop out in a minute. After waiting for a couple of minutes, I spotted her up at the top of the tower, with a little boy not a lot older than her holding onto her legs. He wasn't going to let her go. She didn't seem upset at all. I called up to him to let her go--he stared at me for about half a second and let go of her. Pretty soon she had climbed down and we were ready to leave.

On the way out the door with bowling ball (who can be pretty slippery at times), the diaper bag, and Cora, I realized my pants had come untied. Cohen was wiggling and kicking, and the danger of losing the pants appeared to be imminent. I had no clue what to do, since both hands were pretty much involved holding on to kids. Somehow I got a grip on them with the baby hand, and we made it into the car. Then I got the bowling ball buckled up, tied my pants back up, got Cora into the car, and decided I would NEVER go to McDonald's with them by myself again--at least not until Cohen is the one who says "I need to go potty".

Love to all, and God bless.

We went to Dollar General

Last Tuesday I drove to Chattanooga to see the grandbabies. It was a great trip, all around. The driving was good--I only got lost once, and that was on the way home when I wasn't paying attention to road signs and missed a turn on TN 61. I even made it through the two roundabouts in Chattanooga on the first try! Everyone seemed to be reasonably healthy, we weren't too rushed, the babies were beautiful...

Wednesday, I kept both children all day by myself. This was the first time I had ever attempted that, and it was a very good day. Actually, Geron had Cohen part of the day--he took him to the doctor in the morning and was gone less than an hour. While he was gone, Cora and I went to Dollar General. Of all the things we did, I think Cora enjoyed that the most.

Highlights of the babysitting day for me:

• Actually having both children asleep at the same time for their afternoon naps! Cohen woke up crying once, so I took him into the living room and held him while I watched Days (my favorite soap).
  
• Fixing lunch for Cora--we took a look at the fridge, and she picked "leaf" for her lunch. For the uninitiated, that was a salad, spinach and baby lettuce. I asked her what kind of "ketchup" she wanted on it. She spotted the container of sour cream, and insisted that was what she wanted. I put some on her salad. We sat there while she tried it. Then she pushed it away and said, "I don't like this, it's not good." Well, duh, I could have told her that!
• Going outside in the afternoon to play for a few minutes. It was a little bit of a hassle to get them out the door, since I was taking Cohen's walker. He got all excited when he saw his shoes--I'm not sure why, but he really was jumping around. Once we were out in the back yard, I put him in his walker on the driveway. He showed me how different he was from his sister by taking off like a streak down the extremely gradual incline of the driveway. After chasing him down, I put him and the walker on the grass. He really liked the driveway better, but the grass was okay.
  
• Figuring out how to get Cohen into his carseat. His mom said I didn't have him far enough in the seat, but I think it's just really, really hard to get a five-point harness on a bowling ball with legs!

When Cora and I were reviewing for her mama what we had done, the highlight of the day for her was the trip to Dollar General. I'm glad that she'll have that memory. Love to all, and God bless.

Birdie, part 3, and other stuff

My bird is healing. I've stopped wearing a bandage, stopped using the antibiotic ointment, and stopped treating it like an invalid. Of course it is ugly, but it works for all purposes, including letting folks know that I'm angry.

Life is good. I had a pretty busy week, lots of volunteer stuff. Monday was Hispanic Initiative and a lecture on bed bugs--seems one of the Hispanics had a problem with them, and one of our board members felt we all needed to know how to treat the problem if it arose again. Tuesday, BW's circle meeting at church and a shopping trip to Kohl's, where I probably tried on 12 garments before finally leaving with a pair of capri pants. Wednesday, the entire day in Louisville with hospital auxiliary volunteers for a conference--the highlights of the trip were the rides to and from Louisville. I met a couple of fascinating people, both volunteers at the local hospital: a woman whose husband had been a couterie (I sure hoped I spelled/got the right word there) for stage productions on Broadway in New York--I hope that word means fashion designer; and a very nice Black woman who could trace her family lineage back to slavery--it was almost like riding with Alex Haley to listen to her talk. Thursday, the final day of Friendship for the year--I'm really going to miss it. I made friends with a sweet lady who was the nahneh (Chinese for grandmother, I think) of a great little kid called Charlie. Last week, she brought me a little red silk pouch which I decided was probably a necklace, and I wore it on Thursday. I bought her a small cross magnet with some sort of quote on it about friends being a blessing. She was very touched, but not as touched as I had been the week before. I am going to miss those folks this summer! Friday, another auxiliary meeting and gym class, then a lot of just plain loafing!

Did anyone watch the Preakness? I thought it was really neat that both Rachel Alexandra and Mine the Bird were in the money at the end of the race. Mine the Bird is so impressive with his last-minute runs--he actually got within a half length of Rachel Alexandra, after she had led the entire race! It was terrific to see him coming from so far back--nothing got in his way. I really love racing, during the Triple Crown, but the rest of the year, I don't care beans about it. I've only been to two live races, both harness races, and I won money at both of them. (Not much--don't church me! $2 bets on the favorite to show doesn't exactly make you rich, but you do get to cash in tickets!)

Next week is going to be busy, too. I'm heading for Chattanooga on Tuesday to see Cora's end-of-the-year school program, then staying over until Thursday so I can give Geron and Lydia a night out on the town. I do love the grandbabies, and apparently Mr. Cohen is mobile now, not stationary, so it will be interesting. He's also talking, saying "da da", at least.

I hope you all are having some great weeks! Love to all, and God bless.