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.