Well, It Started Out as a Good Idea

Everyone knows kids love to play. Here's an example of three of my grandchildren (Audrey, Nolan, and Jeremy) trying to find the fastest car among hundreds:

Grandchildren Audrey, Nolan, and Jeremy trying to find the fastest car.

Sometimes my grandchildren play hide and seek, but instead of hiding people they hide objects. This week and next I'm in Virginia with my son and his two boys, Kaden and Zac. Today we decided to play hide and seek with an object. I chose this cute little frog that belongs to the baby who lives here:

I figured that it was bright enough to be found, small enough to make it a challenge, and easy enough to feel if somebody decided to hide it under a blanket. Also, unlike Easter eggs, it wouldn't matter if we forgot where we placed it.

My grandkids, Kaden on the left, Zac on the right and
future grandchild Myraiah in the middle

The game was going quite well in the beginning. But what I didn't know was that this object was going to be a bigger challenge than I anticipated, because as we were searching for the frog above, we found an entire family of them.

Maybe colored eggs weren't such a bad idea after all. We would just have to remember how many eggs we hid.

Have a beautiful week and thank you for visiting!

61 and Still Getting Honked At

I know. I know. I grew up in the 50s, 60s, & 70s when women were supposed to send truck drivers visual slaps for demeaning women for honking at them. I was kind of surprised actually. I mean, I am getting older. Maybe he wasn't actually honking at me, I thought, so I looked around. Nobody else was on the road. Hmm. Curiouser and curiouser.

Then I thought that maybe I had left a gallon of milk or my wallet on my hood (sadly, I have done both), but no, he was honking at me. Then again, it could have been my Hyundai GX350, but most people don't find this particular vehicle all that awesome.

Yeah, he was honking at me, and you know what? I just turned 61, I got honked at today, and I liked it! But I wonder – could I get more honks if I drive this baby? :


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Who Says Kids Don't Get Exercise When They Play Video Games?

I'm going to miss these little guys. I've spent the last three weeks with them and it has been such a joyful experience.

From the second Kaden and Zac awaken in the morning, they are constantly busy. I don't think they even know what the term, bored, means.  They play video games and then act out various video characters in real life, taking on different personas as they don capes, swing swords, and shoot guns, becoming fearless avengers and caped crusaders. 

When they are not play-acting or running through the house, we tell stories, engage in activity time, and have funny conversations, like the time we were playing I Spy and I had the kids going for a while trying to find something blue. I had chosen Kaden's eyes. So we discussed eyes. Zac said his were black. I said they were dark brown. He insisted they were black. I said only his pupils were black.

And here's where I started laughing so hard I was crying, because Zac couldn't pronounce pupils. He kept calling them pukers. "I have pukers? What are pukers?" For some reason he was having a hard time pronouncing that word. And for some reason I couldn't stop laughing.

During exercise time, the boys would throw themselves on a huge stuffed animal, and I would have to say, "Come on, Guys, I'm the old grandma here, remember?" And they would sigh and begin again.

Throughout the day they were always doing something and yet, when their mother called to ask them what they were doing, they always said, "Nothing. Just staying inside." 

They would have her on speaker phone, and I would just laugh, wishing I could explain to her through videotape what doing nothing all day looked like. Just watching them is sometimes exhausting. Who says kids don't get enough exercise playing video games?

Going home is bittersweet. When I'm with one family member, I'm always missing the others no matter where I am. I'll miss you, but I'm hoping you'll get a chance to visit me in Illinois!