Sharing some things that made my day better

Thursday, October 1, 2009

After our walk today we spent our time with Annabelle. Her mommy had an appointment so we offered to relieve her of little Missy.

We picked her up and then made our way over to Piccadilly near her house to eat our lunch. This would give mommy a little needed "me" time that all mommies need after running after a toddler/pre-schooler or whatever you call an almost three year old with a bundle of energy.

Months ago I had bought a really pretty lunch box in pink. Perfect for using for Annabelle when we go out to eat together. I had found it one day at Goodwill while I was browsing. It has two tiers. The bottom one we use for small hidden snacks and her extra "plastic ware" and anything else we can slip into it. The top has a deeper section which we keep her silicon cup cake holders. These cup cake holders are pink and yellow and look like sunshines or flowers whichever you see when you look at them. we also have at least four of them with us. We also have other cup cake holders that aren't as fancy, but they are also silicon and we have a choice of blue, pink, yellow and green for those. These she uses as her serving dishes. She loves this little lunch box and the holders almost as much as I do, if that's possible.

It's just a tradition. I try to remember to have them washed and packed back into the car for the next trip out with her. It is supposed to be her responsibility to get it out of them car and back into the car again once we have used it. She's pretty good with a little prompting.

We took them in at Piccadilly and added her food to them. She's a pretty good eater most of the time when we go out. She likes to start with dessert first, which today was muffin spread with butter. I reminded her that Mommy probably wouldn't like for her to eat the muffin before she ate the rest of the food and like a good girl she waited until she had finished.

The end of the meal required a balloon from the girl who has waited on our table for years when we've gone there. We almost always sit in the same area so she's watched Annabelle grow up. This time she asked about Mommy because she was missing. She always attaches the balloon's ribbon at the bottom with several paper napkins. This keeps the balloon from floating away. It's a very neat idea, actually. I'm sure it has kept many a child from crying because they lost their balloon. Annabelle asked for a purple one (her favorite color) or an orange one or pink, or white. Her other favorite colors. She got an orange one.

We dropped it back by her house so that it wouldn't break. The last one she got popped before we got out of the parking lot. Since heat can affect balloons it was best for Granddaddy to put it at the house.

Then it was off to Sam's to spend a little time occupying a little girl. She didn't ride in the buggy. She was going to walk beside it. I said she was going to walk beside it. I left her and Granddaddy for one second and come back to find her hanging from the front of the buggy. A definite no, no with her Mommy. I told Granddaddy he would have to do the 'splaining to Mommy about that one.

She got off the buggy and carried me around the store to show me some of her favorite things she knew she would love to have. Which meant pretty much every toy in the store. Now why does she think I'm the sucker in this two-pony show?

We finally got her to sit in the buggy, not on her knees like she wanted, bottom down onto the big part of the buggy. She had already had samples throughout the store. She's so much her Granddaddy's grandchild! While we were waiting for Granddaddy to get a sample of coffee (which he doesn't drink) and let it have time to cool down, she started telling me that Granddaddy wouldn't let her have something. Something was what I didn't understand so she and I made our way back to the back of the store where she told me it was "A looonng way back there". It was and she was wanting some yogurt that Granddaddy had ignored getting her, probably because he also didn't know what she had said.

She had eaten a sample earlier and then it had gotten spilled so she wanted some more. We got it. She ate it. She was happy again for a little while.

Then, before we could go home we had to go by the books. She wanted to read some books before we left. She found one that looked interesting. We read it. Then she saw another set that had fifteen tiny little books in it about helpers in the community. We couldn't go home until we had read all fifteen of them. She knew which ones we had and had not read. She listened to me read every page. She does love those books. I just hope that will continue through out her life.

Then it was back to her house to make sure Shadow (the cat) hadn't burst her balloon while we were gone and to wait for Mommy to come home so she could show her the balloon she had gotten at Piccadilly.

Meanwhile, while I was doing something else I kept asking her where she was, what she was doing, etc. I knew she was in her bedroom doing something because I could see the little shadows moving around occasionally. Just as I was going to check on her she wanted me to come back there and join her. She was probably tired of me asking what she was doing.

I did join her. She had her Bristle blocks and was playing with them. On the floor she had lined up a bunch of the block pieces going down and to the side. She had the directions book for making things in her hand. She had found all the blocks that went with the picture facing the parts needed and wanted my help finding the other pieces. Some had been put in other places, apparently, and she didn't see them. We were searching for them when Mommy came home.

Mommy didn't believe that Annabelle had gotten the pieces all lined up. She did almost every piece if not every piece done by herself, because I had just gone in a very few minutes earlier.

She is amazing at how fast she can put pretty difficult puzzles together with no problem. I'm certainly no help to her.

I give credit to her Daddy for the time he spends with her working on building with the Bristle blocks. I guess he can't relate too much to playing with dollies and having tea parties, so he teaches her what he knows and that is the building part. Mommy can teach her the girly girl things. And she is a good little student. She apparently watches and plays well with her Daddy. I give him lots of credit for the job he does with her. She's well rounded in her play. That's a very good thing. Good job, Daddy.

Mommy felt a hunger for the Varsity. Annabelle had mentioned wanting to go there again last week when we were together. She had found the picture of her with the onion rings held over her eyes and that made her want to go there again.

While she and I were waiting for Granddaddy and Mommy to bring our meal to us she was occupying her little self with the straws. They were covered with paper so I saw no reason for her not to play with a few of them while we waited. After I had talked her into putting a few back into the cup, she decided she would hold out a few. "Dez are for me. Dare x'tras", says she.
She would later say the same thing to her mother who says, "Where do these things come from?" We don't know where that word came from, but obviously it was a part of Annabelle's vocabulary she's kept hidden.

Annabelle doesn't like eating meats much so Mommy had suggested maybe I could share my hotdog with her. Of course Annabelle wanted it cut into an octopus, actually a modified octopus because he only had four arms and not eight. She played with it for a while before eating any of it, so I suggested she might let me put some ketchup into the plate and she could dance her octopus into the ketchup. That sounded like a good idea to me and her both until the octopus had ketchup stuck on its feet. Apparently she doesn't like ketchup. Then the drama of all dramas began. She was not at all happy with having ketchup on her octopus' arms and she started wailing about it. Her Mommy suggested she could wipe it off with a napkin. I made the comment about her getting on its arms and she continued the wailing and blaming me for it.
"You told me to, Grandmomma!" Well, yeah, but that was before I knew you didn't like ketchup on your hotdog octopus. How was I to know? She likes dippy anything. I just figured. Anyway, it was taken care of with a little napkin like Mommy had suggested.

Then on toward the end of the meal she needed something to occupy her mind a little more, or as she once told me, "We need to find something to do." or something like that. She was sitting next to the window and I was pretty sure that by now she had done a good job of cleaning the ledge with her hands and arms and face. She is so her mother's child. Don't tell her not to do something...she will bust a gut to make sure she does it. It's just a deliberate thing with her. I try not to say 'don't' to her because I know she will. So I had pretty much ignored her wallowing all over the ledge and the window, etc.

Next thing any of us knew (I promise you she's very fast when she moves, while we're all still in shock, I guess) she had taken the lid off her cup, dipped her napkin into the water and proceeded to quickly wash the window! No, really, we do all watch her, but at that point it was pretty much just that..."watch her". She quick and she knows if she doesn't do it fast she'll never get away with it.

I have to say it was really funny, though, and I regretted not having the camera with it. It was in the car but did me no good there. At that point there was no need to tell her not to do it, she had already done it. She entertained herself for quite a while, dipping, washing, scrubbing, cleaning that window until finally I offered her a dry napkin to dry it off.

Outside the restaurant a family was leaving and the woman saw what she was doing. She thought it was equally funny (after all, it wasn't her kid, I suppose) and she gave her a thumbs up, while little Missy just kept washing the window.

Finally we stopped her just before we were invited to leave the restaurant. The Varsity had no reason to complain...the window was much cleaner after she finished it than it was when she started. Isn't there a little saying about leaving the place a little better than you found it? She did.

Granddaddy has a hard time letting her do the things we sometimes overlook. He never stayed home with two kids all day and all night. He didn't understand the importance of deciding what would make you go completely crazy and letting them have a little fun discovering things around them. Besides better for it to happen there in the restaurant where it could be more easily cleaned up than being on my hard-wood floors while she was cleaning the sliding door. What would you have chosen?

And why would I want to stop her? She's my amusement many days of my life. And I love her sooo much.