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.