An Awesome Christmas 2010

Christmas started for us on Christmas Eve. It had been snowing off and on all day, started at 7am. We left for 4pm mass at 3pm, the streets were pretty clear. Julie, Dylan and Kylie met us in church. The church was decorated beautiful, the lights were dimmed and the choir was singing and they were really good. Dylan was listening to the choir and when they finished their first song, Dylan started clapping and yelling yeah. Of course, he was the only one clapping. I am sure they appreciated his admiration. Mass was starting and Dylan declared he was tired and wanted to nap right before the lights were turned up. When the lights grew bright, Dylan shouted out, "How am I going to nap with these bright lights?" People were snickering at him. During the mass, Julie was trying to show Dylan someone up in the choir, Dylan was standing on the kneelers, we were all sitting, and Dylan was trying to see but then told his mom, not in a quiet voice, those heads are in the way. The lady who was sitting in front of Dylan, turned and leaned over and said, can you see now. He said, no, it is all those heads, pointing to all the people in front of us. He was too much. We made it thru the mass and then proceeded outside to blizzard. Our car was completely covered and so were the streets. It must of snowed 2 inches while we were in church. We barely made it home.

Now it is 6am, I have been up since 3am, waiting for my babies. I have had their presents piled up since yesterday afternoon, I have had most of them wrapped since the day after Thanksgiving. I have forgotten what some of them have in them. It is so much fun. Charlie is really getting into it this year. The kids arrived about 10:30am and then Christmas officially began. It was probably one of the greatest Christmases ever. Everyone was in a good mood and just really happy. We had the kids open their presents first, starting with Charlie, youngest to oldest. It was great and they all seemed to love their presents. Then on the big kids, we started with the oldest to the youngest, that means Brian started it off. They all seemed really happy with their presents also. The most popular present this year seemed to be Leah's karaoke. Mary and Julie just took over that present and entertained us with their beautiful melodic voices. Ha. I have some pics of the day. Linda and Al came about 2:30 and we ate around 3pm. Food was good, prime rib and turkey. Then the kids left around 5pm. Things settled down and Linda and Al left around 7pm. I immediately went to bed because I was done. I loved this Christmas, it was awesome because I have such an awesome, fabulous, loving family.

Poor Charlie

December 20th Charlie was bitten by one of the Barton's dogs, no one knows exactly what happened but he had to get 13 stitches under his nose. He was such a brave little boy but it broke all our hearts to see his cheek bitten like that. He is fine now.

Leah's 7th Birthday

Leah Abigal Knobbe is our second Grandchild. She is our sensitive grandchild. She worries about everything. She crys a lot like her Grandma. She cares very much about people. She is very artistic. She has some talent for drawing and designing clothes. Give her a pad a paper and a pencil and you won't hear from her for hours. She is an excellent big sister. I have seen her on more than one occasion pick a treat out and her brother or sister decided they want it and Leah will give it to them, knowing there is no more of that one treat. She is very selfless when it comes to her sister and brother. Leah is an excellent student, already making the honor roll in first grade. I see a lot of me in Leah. She is my heart. I love her dearly. She will go far in this life and have many friends because she is kind and caring.

Dylan's 4th Birthday

What can I say about our 3rd Grandchild, Dylan. He has more energy than the energizer bunny. He is more curious than curious George. A switch cannot go untouched, a button cannot go unpressed. He is a snuggler, which I am really grateful for, if I sit on the couch he will come from across the room to sit on my lap. He is unpredictable, one minute you are about to reprimand him and then all of a sudden he grabs your leg and says, I love you Maw Maw, you are the best. Any adult commercial on tv for baking or wrinkle cream, Dylan tells me I need it and he will buy it for me. He is very generous that way. Dylan worships his Mom, Dad and Sister, Kylie. What they say is gospel. He also, loves all his cousins, especially, Sissy. She is his best friend. They go to preschool together and get along so well. We will ask him who he plays with and he says Sissy. We ask him if there are pretty girls in school and he says yes, Sissy. They have a tight bond. I hope that continues thru life. Dylan is our first Grandson and nothing like I have ever experienced before. He is my love, my heart and my soul. He makes me a better Grandma/Maw Maw. I wish Dylan much happiness and love in his life's journey.

Decorating Grandma and PawPaw's Christmas Tree

We use to have Thanksgiving dinner at our house and after dinner we would have the grand kids decorate our tree, it was so much fun. Then Brian and Mary wanted to have Thanksgiving dinner at their house, which I really love. So, now on Friday, they bring all the leftovers out to our house and Julie and the kids come over and then the grand kids decorate our tree. It is so much fun. We put on the same music that we used when Brian and Julie were little and decorated the tree. This year it was so funny because Charlie was really getting into it. I hand everyone an ornament and then Julie, Brian or Mary help the kids put the ornament on the tree. Well, Charlie would shove everyone aside to get to the ornaments, it was so cute. Also, we take turns on who puts the angel on top of the tree. This year was Sissy's year. Well, none of us knew that Sissy was afraid of heights and as you can see in the picture, she was pretty frightened. It was actually kind of funny to see her gripping Brian. She was successful though getting the angel on the tree. We always take pictures so we will remember for the next year. Then we take a picture of the kids after everything is done. Success for another year. Then chaos broke out and they started attacking each other, it was pretty funny as you can see. God I love these kids.

Our two very accomplished 1st Graders

November was a very successful month for our two 1st graders. First Leah came home with a ribbon that she made honor roll and then next Kylie came home with the "Student of the Month" award. We are so proud of both of our girls. Her are pictures of our girls with their awards.

A Day We Don't Want Repeated

The day was Wednesday, 11-3-2010 it started out ok. I was making breakfast for everyone including Brian when Mary called and said Brian is not feeling good and taking off sick but thinks he can bring the kids to you. About 15 minutes later Mary called again and said Brian was taking the kids out to the car and threw up in the rosebushes so she was bringing the kids out. Now I do need to tell you Monday, the day after Halloween, Charlie started throwing up all evening. We just thought it was too much candy on Halloween. Well, I guess we were wrong. Before Mary left for work, she turned on the heat because Brian was so cold. After I came back from taking Kylie to school, I started making dinner because I was going to take Kylie to the dentist after school and wouldn't have time to make it later. Bob was watching the little ones downstairs. At lunch Mary went home to check on Brian, she walked in the house and smelled gas. Brian was still sleeping. Mary called Laclede Gas and they came out immediately but did tell her she should get out of the house. Brian said he was too sick to get out of bed. Mary opened all the windows. Laclede Gas said something was wrong with their furnace. Mary called their furnace company and they said they would be out this evening. Now Mary was panicking because what if they didn't have a furnace what were they going to do. Mary knew she could come here or her parents home. We volunteered to keep the 2 little ones and Mary's Mom would keep Leah. Now it is 3pm, time for me to go get Kylie and take her to the dentist to see if he should pull her other tooth from when she knocked out the other two teeth. Before I left, I went in to wake up Dylan from his nap, when I opened the door I was knocked over by the smell of poop. Also, Charlie was awake, so I figured it was him. I was wrong, it was both of them. Charlie had a bad case of diarrhea and Dylan just some poop but also peed in his bed. I am trying to clean up both of them before I had to leave. Dylan is crying and I just placed him on Bob's lap and hoped for the best. I gave Bob the instructions about putting the chicken in the oven at 4pm. I took Kylie to the dentist and they decided not to pull her tooth, he thought Kylie would be able to get it out in time. I was on my way home around 4:10pm. I called Bob to tell him and he did not answer the phone. I tried again in about 10 minutes and he told me Sissy puked all over the family room rug. I said I would be there in 5 minutes. When I walked in Bob was on the floor trying to clean up puke. Kensey was on the porch barking, Dylan and Charlie were on the couch watching cartoons and Sissy was in the bathroom sitting in front of the toilet. I went for Sissy. It was the most pitiable thing I ever saw, Sissy was sitting on the stool leaning over the toilet. She looked up at me and said, "I am sick because I didn't wash my hands after I went to the bathroom." I hugged her and took her into the Tinkerbell room where I gave her a container to throw up in and turned on cartoons for her. I checked on Bob and the boys and how dinner was progressing. Now I am starting to get a headache. Mary called about the furnace, they need a new one and don't know when they will get one, the furnace company is supposed to call back by tonight. I told her about Sissy and she asked if she should come get her, Sissy was still ok to stay here for the night. I told her we would be ok. I went to check on Sissy and she had thrown up in the container and was back watching tv, she did not even call me and tell me she got sick again. She is something else. I cannot believe she doesn't even cry. It is 4:30 and Julie just arrived. I finished dinner and we ate. I am starting to feel nauseous but just thinking it is all this commotion. Sissy has now fallen asleep in bed. I went to get my shower. Bob and Julie are giving Charlie and Dylan a bath, cleaning up from dinner and Julie is working with Kylie on her homework. Kylie is complaining of a headache and Julie took her temp. and it was 99. Now Dylan is complaining about his stomach hurting. Since Dylan and Charlie wouldn't eat dinner with us. Julie is fixing them both cereal. Julie left our home about 6:30pm. I was just picking up a little and Bob put Charlie down around 7pm. Now Sissy is awake and just watching cartoons, never complaining about anything. She is just content watching cartoons. I put pjs on her so she is ready for bed. I think she is done throwing up. I went to bed around 8pm because I was still feeling nauseous. Around 9pm it hit me, I ran into the bathroom and started throwing up. I had Bob call Julie and tell her she needed to get someone to watch the kids because I wouldn't be able too. She said Dylan is throwing up now. At 11pm I threw up again and then it hit Bob around midnight. Again for me around 2am, it was the worse I ever experienced. Then I started the other end, that was lovely. I called Brian around 6am because I didn't think I could even get up and help the two little ones. Brian said he was better, it lasts 12 hours and then you are ok. He said he would be out. He got here about 6:30am and took the 2 little ones home. Sissy was feeling better but Charlie still had diarrhea. Brian was feeling just weak but ok. Thursday Bob and I just sipped Gatorade and pretzels. We slept on and off all day. We slept all night and Kensey woke us both up at 3am to go out. Bob took her out and I got up and thought I would try coffee. It tasted pretty good. Bob ate some dry cereal. I think we are better today. Still a little weak but on the mend. I just don't want another day like that.

The Saga Continues:

So I thought since I feel so good today Friday, Nov. 5th, I would call Julie and tell her I will take Kylie to school. She said she would call me back and let me know. At 6:30am, she called back from home and said she was sick and Nick would bring Kylie over for me to take her to school. Julie was sick and staying home with Dylan. Kylie came and said her stomach hurts but Kylie always says this, I fixed french toast her favorite and said she couldn't eat it and wanted to lay down. I said can I fix you something else, she said oatmeal. I fixed the oatmeal and she ate 3 bites and couldn't eat anymore. Julie called and asked if I would come over and feed Dylan, she didn't feel good enough to do it. I took Kylie to school and went over to Julie's. In the meantime, Mary said they had to take her car to get fixed by our house and since they don't have heat at their house and they are getting a furnace today, she asked it they could leave Iris at our house. Brian dropped Iris off at our house and then went home. I was at Julie's fixing Dylan some breakfast when Julie called me upstairs, school called Kylie threw up. I went and got Kylie and took her home and took Dylan to my house. Soooooo who is next???? Mary, Leah or Nicholas, these are the only 3 that have not succumbed to this horrible illness.

The Saga keeps continuing:

We had a committment for Friday night we felt we had to go to, it was like a cocktail party and Brian and Mary were going with us. We were able to get ready to go and arrived at 6:30pm. We ate a few things and I was starting to feel better but after an hour, Bob said, I am ready to go home. We got home and Bob went to bed. At 2:30am I ran to the bathroom with more diahrrea. Saturday, Bob and I were feeling rotten again. We could hardly do anything. About 9am Brian called, Leah threw up. Talked with Julie, she was a little better and so was Kylie but Nicholas had diahrrea. So the only one not touched so far is Mary. Mary you win!

Halloween at the Magic House

On Oct. 29th we took Dylan, Sissy and Charlie to the Magic house. We had a great time, they went in their costumes. They were so cute. We arrived at 9:30 and didn't leave till after noon. By the time we were leaving, they were so tired but did not want to give up, they were crying and we were threatening them. Another good memory.

Toothless Beautiful Kylie

Julie has decided to sell Lia Sophia Jewelry. Her first show was at her house on October 22, 2010, this was a Friday night. There were a total of 6 people, Mary brought Leah and another friend of Kylie's was there. The 3 girls were playing upstairs while the party was going on. During the first 15 minutes of the party, we heard screaming, Julie ran upstairs and immediately brought Kylie down blood pouring from her mouth. They were playing on Julie's bed and somehow Kylie knocked her mouth on the foot board of her bed, knocking out one of her front top teeth immediately, the other front tooth was sideways and the tooth next to the front tooth was crooked and bent back. She looked like snaggletooth. Julie found her front tooth laying on the floor. It took 30 minutes before we could stop the bleeding. Her gums looked black with all the blood in them. It was awful. We called the dentist and he said it would be ok but if Julie wanted him to look at them tomorrow he would or otherwise he definitely wanted to see her Monday. Kylie seemed ok Sat. and Julie waited till Monday. On Monday the dentist pulled out her other front tooth. Now we have toothless Beautiful Kylie.

On Thursday, October 29th, Kylie had the opportunity to meet "Big Time Rush", it is a kids show with 4 teenage guys. Kylie was so excited, her and Julie stood in line outside Best Buy for 3 hours waiting their turn to get them to sign her CD. She was so excited and they were so nice to her.

Sissy the Angelic Middle Child

Sissy is something else. She is very independent. She has the face of an angel but can turn in the blink of an eye. Mary would tell me stories of Sissy telling her she was not the best Mom in the world but I had never received that treatment from her. Well, I am no longer a virgin. A couple of weeks ago, we took Dylan, Charlie and Sissy to Suson Park to play on the playground and visit the animals, this is one of the favorite parks for the kids. It was a beautiful October morning. The kids were happy and having a ball. After a while, Dylan and Charlie went for the swings. I told Sissy, lets go over on the swings. Sissy said she wanted to climb the rock. Now this rock is about 12 feet high. I hate it. Sissy is not the most coordinated child. I said no lets go to the swings right now. She started screaming at the top of her lungs. People started looking at me, I didn't even have my hands on her. She proceeded to scream and then it came, "You are not the best Maw Maw in the world." I was heartbroken, I immediately guided her by her shoulders to a bench and told her to sit over there til she calmed down. She kept screaming on the bench. After a few minutes I went over to her and tried to explain why I didn't want her to climb the rock, that I didn't want her to get hurt. It wasn't helping. Finally after about 10 minutes she started to calm down and she went for the swings and all was forgotten. Later that day I told Mary that I was not the best Maw Maw in the world and that GiGi is now the only best Grandma in the world. She told me no, that wasn't true, that GiGi was also told she was not the best GiGi in the world. So I didn't feel so bad, I am in good company now.

Another cute story about Sissy. When she broke her finger or should I say when Charlie broke Sissy's finger, her fingernail turned black and blue. Well, on Oct. 29th, we took the kids to the Magic house and while they were playing in the water, Sissy told me look Maw Maw my fingernail, I looked at it and she was lifting half her nail up. I got her a band aid and put it on her finger because I didn't want it to get torn off. Later that night she showed her Mom and Dad her nail and told them her nail was winking at her. I rolled when they told me that. Her fingernail winks. Toooooo funny.

About a week ago, Mary told me that Sissy knows when she needs to poop on the potty but sometimes they think she gets lazy, so if she poops in her pants, I need to spank her. Well, a few days later, I was putting Dylan and Sissy down for quiet time. We always go to the bathroom before we go down. Dylan peed and Sissy pooped and peed. All was well, until about 10 minutes later Sissy comes out with a smile on her face and said she pooped in her pants. I said you know what that means... she said she gets a spanking on her butt. I looked at Bob and said I can't spank her. I went into the bathroom and cleaned her up and I gave her a talking to about how disappointed I am in her pooping in her pants, nothing seemed to phase her. We went back into her room and it was a mess from the 3 of them playing in there earlier that day. I told her, your punishment for pooping in your pants is cleaning up this room by yourself. She started screaming, I don't want to clean it up by myself, I said too bad. You don't get a snack or go home till it is cleaned up. She continued screaming, I walked out and closed the door. I heard screaming for about 20 minutes. She then came out of her room, all smiles and singsonged, MawMaw I cleaned my room, can I get my snack now. I immediately hugged her and let her have her snack. She goes from evil Sissy to Angelic Sissy in a blink of an eye. It is so funny.

The last funny story happened, I think it Monday night 11-1-10, Mary was making supper and Sissy asked to play with play dough, Mary said no, you can play with it after supper. Sissy immediately went to her room and got out the play dough and started playing. Nora saw this and said to Sissy, didn't your Mom tell you, you couldn't play with your play dough? Mary heard this and replied, yes, Sissy, put that away. Sissy screamed "No!" Mary said fine, if you don't put it away, I will throw it away. Mary left and Sissy turned to Nora and said, "Nora, my Mom just don't understand me." She cracks me up.

These are some of the adventures of our middle Grandchild.

Injuiries and Insults

Here are the Injuiries, on Sunday, 9-12-10 Kylie was playing on her playground set in her backyard and thought she cut her foot, she went in to show her mom and dad and found out it was a splinter about 1/2' long and it went really deep into her foot. Nick and Julie could not get it out. It didn't hurt too bad, so they waited and called the Dr. the next day, he told them to take her to St. Clare's in Fenton to remove it. The Emergency Room gave Kylie a codeine/xanax cocktail and then preceded to remove her splinter, all is well.

On Friday, 9-17-10, Sissy was going to the bathroom at Mary's mom and dad's house, Charlie went with her, that is all that is known for sure, somehow Charlie slammed the shower door on Sissy's pointer finger on her right hand and broke it. Mary took her to an Urgent Care and they put a splint on it. Sissy was very proud of her splint.

Now for the Insults, on 9-14-10, while Bob was gone fishing for the week and I had my little angels all by myself, every morning I had to pack all the kids in the car to take and pick up Kylie. Of course, Kylie is the only one that can buckle herself up, so I have to buckle the rest, that means getting all the way to the back of the van to buckle Sissy, while I am doing that bent over at the waist, Dylan looks to his left and all he sees is my posterior, he immediately announces, "Grandma you have a BIG BUTT!" I immediately start laughing. I can't help it, he is just stating the obvious. I did try and tell him, while that is true, it may hurt some peoples feelings if you say that, he just looked at me and said "but you do have a big butt", I gave up, his parents can deal with that one.

This past weekend, Mary had to go to Texas on business, so Brian and the 3 kids stayed with us Thursday 9-23-10 and Friday 9-24-10 night. Saturday, was such a beautiful day Brian wanted to go somewhere, so we decided on Kimmswick. While we walking around and the kids got a few nick knacks, Leah proclaimed this was her BEST DAY EVER! I immediately thought of the money we spent on taking them to Disney World and she says this is her best day ever. I think we spent $7.00 on her. Now I know how to give her the best day ever and it won't hurt my pockets. We decided to eat at the Blue Owl and it was wonderful, the pics of the kids enjoying their desserts are attached. After eating Leah wanted to go to the Kimmswick museum so we were walking down there, in the street, because there are no sidewalks, and I told Leah, you walk on the inside so a car will hit me instead of you. Leah said "Yes, I am not old enough to die, I haven't even made my first communion." I started laughing and said "Yes, I guess I am old enough to die". She said, "Yes you are, your mom and dad are already dead and waiting for you in heaven." So, that makes you old enough to die, when you already made your first communion and your parents are already in heaven, just in case you didn't know the criteria to die. Where, where do they come up with this stuff. It has to be stuff we tell them and they twist it so they can understand it. Tooooooo funny.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

This week has been one of the funniest we have had in awhile. These kids should be stand up comics. Maybe they are only funny to us but they sure make our days. Here is our story this week.

On Wednesday we decided to take the kids to the "Whittle Train Station", it is a little place in Fenton/Valley Park that has tables with wooden train sets on them, they are about 2 feet off the floor and the kids can play with the trains for free, they love it. So we went around 10am when they open and let them play until about 11:15 when Sissy and Charlie had had enough and were getting hungry and Charlie had a load in his pants and was becoming very fragrant. So we headed for home. 5 minutes before we arrived home, Charlie fell asleep. That is not good. The problem with this is, even just 5 minutes gives Charlie new life and throws his whole routine off. We woke him up, went in and ate lunch and then around 12:30pm, Bob took Charlie to put him in bed. This is our normal routine. Then I put Sissy and Dylan in bed around 1pm. Well, I walked in to Charlie and Dylan's room and Charlie sits up and says "I'm up", I said no you are not, lay down and go to sleep. I put Dylan in bed and left. It was such a beautiful day, Bob and I took our rest out on the porch, with the baby monitor. We just get settled and we hear Charlie talking and laughing and hear Dylan talking. Bob goes in to settle the two down and Dylan looks up at PawPaw and says "Charlie has problems", Bob had to run out of the room before he started laughing.

On Thursday, Dylan and Sissy went to preschool. That evening when Julie came to pick up Dylan she was asking Dylan what he had learned that day, he said he leaned about Jesus. Julie asked him what he learned about Jesus, that he was kind and good? Dylan looked at Julie and said "He wasn't there." Julie ran out of the room laughing.

Later Nick asked Dylan about what he learned and Dylan told him about Jesus and He wasn't there and Nick said "Where was He?", and Dylan said, "He wasn't coming today". I guess we are all glad it wasn't the second coming today.

UPDATE: Saturday night (9-11-10) Julie, Kylie and Dylan went to church with us on Saturday night. During the mass, there was a young man in a red shirt, singing solo in the choir. Dylan looked at his mom and shouted, "Mom, look there is Jesus in the red shirt", Julie is trying to shhhhh him, when he turns to me and shouts very excited, "Grandma, look there is Jesus in the red shirt." We were trying not to laugh and tell him that was not Jesus. Julie showed him the crucifix and said that is Jesus on the Cross and Dylan says, "Why is he up there?" We have a lot of work teaching Dylan about Jesus.

Friday, was a nasty day so we went to the basement to play, Charlie found a pink crown and was putting it on his head and wearing it around. Later, Dylan found it and put it on my head and said Grandma you be the queen, I said ok, but Charlie saw this and said he wanted it. I took it off my head and said, ok Charlie, you can be King Charlie, his lips started quivering and he started crying saying "I don't want to be King, I want to be a PRINCESS". So I had to take a picture and send it to his dad, I am sure he is very proud of his Princess son.

Now, the next 2 stories were told to me by Mary.

Thursday evening, they went to GiGi's birthday celebration. Leah was very tired and told her mom, "I am going to sit my ASS down and watch tv", Mary couldn't believe what she heard and asked Leah again, what she had said. Leah repeated it. Mary said, Leah we don't say Ass, Leah apologized. She didn't even realize that Ass was a word we didn't say. It just came out so normal. Too funny.

Also, Thursday evening on their way home, the kids were watching the Wizard of Oz in the car, when the song came on where the scarecrow was singing I want a brain, Brian started singing along. From way in the back of the van, Sissy hollered out, "Daddy, I have a brain!" before they could respond, Charlie hollered out "me too". We are sooooo grateful they have brains.

This is why we are soooooo blessed. These precious children are our hearts. Whether it is right or wrong, they are MY LIFE!

First Day of Preschool

August 31st was Dylan and Sissy's first day of Preschool at Abiding Savior Lutheran School. Julie took Dylan and Mary took Sissy to school. We were lucky, there were no tears. Sissy was a little nervous but went in and started coloring and Mary snuck out before she started to cry. Dylan couldn't wait and ran into the room and never looked at Julie again, she had to force him to kiss her goodbye. Sissy informed the teachers that her name is Sissy and not MaryAnn. They changed all their records to reflect the change. We were all anxious on how the first day would go, so Bob and I and Charlie got to school a little early to pick up the kids and was hoping to spy on them a little. When we were driving into the parking lot, we saw Dylan and Sissy on the playground, Dylan saw us and then trouble began. The teacher told us when Dylan saw the van, he started to cry. The tears did not last long. The kids loved school and wanted to go back the next day. When we looked into their book bag we saw the notes from the teacher. On Sissy's note it said she was an excellent listener. Dylan's note said he was an enthusiastic door holder. We think the teacher had trouble thinking of something positive to say about Dylan. We understand.

I have to share this story that Gen Barton (GiGi) told me about Sissy. She was watching Sissy and Charlie, they were playing in another room, Gen was in the kitchen. Sissy came in the kitchen and announced to GiGi, "I taught Charlie English", Gen said oh really. Sissy says, "Yes I did, do you want to see?" Gen says sure. Sissy went to get Charlie, brought him into the kitchen and says to Charlie, "Charlie, say English", Charlie does what he is told and says "English". Sissy looks at Gen and says "See, I taught him English". I rolled. Sissy's mom, Mary, teaches English at DuBourg, I bet she is wondering why it takes her mom so long to teach English to the kids, it only took her a second. You gotta love them.

Another Week of Change

This week marks another change in Grandma and PawPaw's house. NO MORE BABY BEDS! It was a very surreal event. In a way, I was happy and in another way I was sad, no more babies. I love all my babies to death but in reality, they are a lot of work and like I always say, there is a reason God doesn't give mature women babies. Anyway, we took down Charlie's baby bed and replaced it with a "garage sale find", a blue corvette toddler bed. Charlie loved it, so did everyone else.

On Friday, I acquired a new name "Chloe", given to me by Sissy. She decided she was Mommy on Friday and I was her little girl. If I forgot to call her Mommy, I was reprimanded immediately and told, "I am your Mommy!" I was called "sweetie" most of the day and told "I had to go to school". It was an interesting and funny day. Oh, the other funny thing was Dylan was Daddy but he didn't take his role very serious.

First Day of 1st Grade

Leah started her first day of first grad August 16th at St. Garbriels. She was very excited/nervous but everything went pretty well, Mary took her and had to leave quickly before she and Leah started crying. Brian worked from home so he could pick her up. I called to see how her first day went and she told me she found the water fountain and bathroom so everything was good.

Kylie's first day was August 18th at Fox Elementary in Arnold. Julie took her to her first day of class and everything went well. I picked up Leah on this day and we had lunch at Steak and Shake and then Leah went with me to pick up Kylie. She was excited to see Leah.

In the evening of August 18th, Dylan's preschool teacher Mrs. Trah (she was Kylie's and Leah's preschool teacher also) came for a home visit. Dylan was very excited and welcomed Mrs. Trah into our home. Mrs. Trah sat in a chair and Dylan proceeded to climb up in the chair with Mrs. Trah and asked if she brought games to play. Mrs. Trah said she did not have any games but did have games at school. Dylan accepted that information. Mrs. Trah started to ask Dylan some questions, she pointed at Julie and asked Dylan "Who is that", he said, "My Julie!" Julie got very excited and said he doesn't call me Julie, he calls me Mommy. Mrs. Trah, says "What do you call her?" Dylan says "Julie". We rolled. Then Mrs. Trah said who is that, pointing to Kylie, he said "Kylie, my sister". Then Mrs. Trah said who is missing, Dylan looked around and said "Leah", Mrs. Trah said yes, Leah is not here but who is missing that lives in your house, he said "My Daddy." It was a great visit and we told Mrs. Trah, we would pray for her.

Mrs. Trah also visited Sissy on Friday, August 20th, her visit went well but she did tell Mrs. Trah, don't call me MaryAnn, call me Sissy. So now we know what name she will be using and I dare someone to call her MaryAnn. Dylan and Sissy start school on Tuesday, August 31st, stay tuned for more updates.

Las Vegas Babysitters

Last week we watched Kylie and Dylan from Tuesday til Saturday while Julie took Nick to Las Vegas with family and friends for his 30th birthday. There is a reason God does not give more mature women babies and he is called DYLAN. I dearly love my little man but he is the busiest little boy I know and the most stubborn, but when I am ready to throw him across the room he will put his arm around me and say, "I love you Grandma, you are the best grandma ever" and I melt and holler at myself for even thinking negative thoughts about this angel.

Here are a few of the incidents last week:

PawPaw was going out to pick tomatoes, Dylan wanted to go, I said, "Go on and go with PawPaw." Dylan asked, "How many tomatoes should I pick?", I said, "Let PawPaw tell you how many to pick." Dylan said, "No, I can come up with a number, let me see, what number should I pick, hmmmmm, I know 3, because that is how old I am." This made him happy and he was on his way.

Kylie came up to me one evening and asked me if something was on her nose because it itched, I looked at it and said no. She started feeling her nose again and said, "Grandma, there is something on my nose because it itches, I think I have chickenpox and I need medicine." I just started laughing, where does this come from, Chickenpox??????

I had to take Dylan to the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) dr. to check out the fluid in his ears, this was a new dr., so Dylan didn't know what to expect. We walked into the waiting room and Dylan thought he was in heaven, it had a corner full of great toys. Dylan shouted out to me from across the room, "I told you Grandma, they would have toys." I don't remember him telling me that but in his mind, again, he was right. Now this ENT, has adult patients too, so I constantly had to tell Kylie and Dylan to hold down the sound effects they were making with the toys. Now Dylan was really enjoying these toys and I think really forgot where he was for about 20 minutes, when the nurse came out and called his name. He was completely jolted out of the toy trance and stood up and hollered, "Ohhhhh man! " Everyone rolled at his response, inside and outside the office. As he was going into the office, with his head hanging low, he was muttering, "Why, why do I have to be here." The nurse was laughing at him the whole time.

One more incident, involving PawPaw, PawPaw decided to work on his project replacing all the baseboards, he was down in the basement and Dylan decided to go down and help PawPaw, I did not stop him because it gave me a break. I know, that is mean but sometimes, the selfish part comes out of me, when it involves Dylan. Anyway, PawPaw explained to Dylan what he was doing and proceeded to take his table saw outside to cut some baseboards. Dylan saw this as an opportunity to help and went to get his hammer and started banging the h*!! out of PawPaw's newly painted baseboard. I immediately heard a scream coming from the basement, "DYLAN, NO! NO!" A few minutes later Dylan appeared rejected with his head hanging low telling me PawPaw would not let him help him. Soooo, my break was short lived.

Even though, it was very tiring, having the kids for a few days, we miss them when they are gone. It is very quiet in this house when they are gone and our laughs seem like they are only when we reminisce our experiences with our grandkids. We are truly blessed with these 5 angels.

Next Monday, we start our full time journey (instead of saying job, it is not a job, it is a journey we are taking with our angels) again, watching 4 of our grandbabies, Leah will be going to St. Gabes and will only be here on days off, we will miss her terribly, but we will see her everyday when Mary comes to pick up Charlie and Sissy. I am sure I will have more funnies once we get all 4 of our characters back on a daily basis.

Monday with Gross Charlie

This was the first Monday in a long time we had 4 grandkids, Kylie, Dylan, Sissy and Charlie. We were so happy to have all 4, but missing our Leah. It is funny how fast we can all get back into the swing of things. We ate breakfast and then brushed our teeth and then we decided to get outside before it gets too hot, so we all have to visit the bathroom and change Charlie's diaper. I was changing Charlie's diaper thinking it was just a pee diaper when I opened it up to a big load of poop. I said to Charlie, whoa, you have a lot of poopoo, he looked down at the load and laid back down and said "Gross!", even he knew how to describe it. I rolled.

Swim Party

Yesterday we were invited to a swim party at our friends, Steve and Maureen, beautiful home and in ground pool. We were swimming and enjoying the water and great food. Dylan had to go to the bathroom and Steve said let him pee on the grass if you don't want him to go inside. I was getting out of the water while Dylan was standing at the side of the pool by the steps and I said come on lets go pee on the grass, when Dylan said "I already did". Me, being the typical blond, thought, I will just get some water and wash it away, I did, right into the pool. That was the first blond moment incident. The second blond incident was when Dylan would pee on the rocks, plants, etc., I would take the hose and rinse him off. Steve has this monstrosity on the end of his hose, you have to turn this arrow to either feed or water, Steve warned me about this and showed me how to do it, I thought. The next time I was rinsing off Dylan, I had my clothes on because we were getting ready to leave, I was intently studying his contraption when I turned it to water but was surprised when the hose was pointed at me instead of Dylan, blasting me in the chest. Needless to say, I was not happy. Everyone else was amused and Steve even commented on he was not planning on a wet tshirt contest. Note that all my blond moments had one common element, Dylan. Enough said.

Dylan was impressed with Steve and Maureen's house he walked in and said "This is a really nice house" and continued to say that every time he walked into the house. Also, we told him he was there last year but he said he did not remember, but when we went out into the backyard he saw their gazebo and Steve had music playing in there and he started dancing. He remembered from last year that he and Sissy danced there last year.

We really enjoyed our swim party but the time went by toooooo fast.

Typical Monday

This morning Kylie and Dylan came in very tired. We are having a lazy day. The County came to trim our trees, so we decided to watch from the porch. Dylan was watching intently when the men started to talk among themselves, Dylan was very surprised by this and looked at me and said "I didn't know they could talk", I just rolled.

Later on in the morning we ran some errands and Kylie and Dylan went with me, with the promise that I would buy them something at the Dollar store. Our last stop was at the fruit stand. When we got home I was unpacking the van, Dylan ran out with me to help. I bought a big cantalope and watermelon, so I tried to give Dylan the cantalope to take in but he said No. I took the cantalope in and left him in the garage by the van for a second. I came out to the van and saw a shadow in the back of the van and then it dropped, then I heard Dylan jump out of the van and start crying. Somehow he fell in the van, flat on his face, blood was gushing out his nose and a big scrape was running down from the bottom of his nose to his top lip, I couldn't see how bad the cut was because of all the blood from his nose. In the end he was ok, I was covered in blood and so was Dylan, his nose stopped bleeding after a few minutes, we still don't know how he did it, but here is a picture of him 30 minutes later.

Past Funnies

One of my earliest funnies was when Kylie was being potty trained and she was on the potty seat and I was sitting across from her going to the bathroom and she looked at me real funny and said, "Grandma you don't fit on that seat". The innocence of a child can be very cutting.

When Kylie and Leah were starting to talk they called hamburgers, hangaburgers and they still do.

Last week (7-12-10) Kylie was eating dinner with us and was biting on a piece of garlic bread (she loves my garlic bread) I was watching her because she has to use her side teeth because she had a loose tooth in the front on the bottom, when all of a sudden I saw her wince and saw a dark spot in the front on the bottom where a tooth was, she immediately put her hand to her mouth and spit out a tooth, that was her third tooth she loss. A few days later, they stayed again for dinner and again I had garlic bread and Kylie looked at the bread and looked up at me with sad eyes and said "Grandma, I can't eat the garlic bread because I don't won't to lose another tooth." We fixed the problem by just scooping out the soft bread from the crust so she could have her garlic bread and not lose another tooth.

The Beginning

I am Grandma/MawMaw, I have had this title for 6 years, 11 months and 2 days. It is in a tie for my best title of Mom/Mommy. I have been keeping a journal to write all my highs/worries and woes, but at this time of my life, I use my computer more than a writing journal. So I thought why not blog all the funny things that my Grandchildren say to me everyday. We have been blessed to have 5 beautiful grandchildren. We have watched our grandchildren almost everyday of their lives. We have been very blessed to be able to do this. I know starting this blog now, I have missed some of the best stories but as time goes on and I remember some of them I will start a space on the blog, called PAST FUNNIES, and I will post past stories. So lets start this journey, hope you enjoy. Here are the characters in this play, First, Kylie, 6 years old and will turn 7 in August and starts 1st grade. Next, Leah, 6 years old and will turn 7 in December and Leah starts 1st grade this year too. Dylan is 3 and will start preschool in August. Sissy (MaryAnn) is 3 and will start preschool also, with Dylan. Charlie is our baby and turned 2 yesterday.