Monday, November 5, 2007

Weekend with the Grandkids

Jamie and Brian went to buy a new home in Colorado this past weekend, so Chieko and I tended their three kids. We learned three things: 1) Kids are a lot of fun, 2) Even young grandparents get tired quickly, 3) Forget trying to keep any room within three blocks of the kids orderly.

They came over late Friday night while we were at the movie "Martian Child." Good movie. Three and a half stars.

Jamie and Brian were gone when we awoke Saturday. Chieko cooked French toast using thick French bread. The kids also ate scrambled eggs, and so did I.

Later, I finished putting cedar trim around the door I built for our shed at the back of the patio last week. Now no one can mozy into the backyard and walk off with our bikes, firewood, mice, and spiders. Kali and Caleb were going to help me, but when I pulled out the circular saw they high-tailed it into the house to watch from the kitchen window. No loud noises for them.

They did a great job after that sweeping up the sawdust and leaves from the patio and dumping it into the black garbage can, while I raked the leaves from the Japanese maple in the front yard into a big pile. Then Kali and Caleb jumped into the pile and made a mess. But they also grabbed big armfulls of leaves and stuffed them into a black bag until almost all the leaves were gone.

They joined me on the east side of the house to scoop up the rest of the leaves, but their interest was waning at this point and no leaves made it into the bag. I suggested they call Marcus to come goof off with them, so they did but ended up going to his house. Janet also came by on a walk by herself. She was her usual happy self.

About 5 p.m. we all (including Marcus) went to see "Bee Movie." It was cute for children. The kids shared a big barrel of popcorn. I think Caleb likes movies only because they mean popcorn. When I told him beforehand to be prepared to go to a movie, he said, "You mean bring popcorn?" Emeline drank half of my 20-ounce bottle of diet rootbeer. I then cut the top off the bottle and filled it with popcorn. She ate about five bottles full of the popcorn. She's unbelievable.

On Sunday we went to church. Emeline was happy to go into the nursery. Caleb was a bit shy to go into his class, so he went with Kali to Primary. They were all good in sacrament meeting, although I had to drag Caleb out once. He stood with his face against the wall for a while. I told him to tell me when he was ready to be reverent so we could go back in. He said he was ready, so we went back and he was pretty good the rest of the meeting. I was impressed that they were able to sit quietly through three hours of meetings with such little hassle.

We ate pot roast for dinner and made chocolate sauce from cocoa, butter, powdered sugar, and water for banana splits. The kids had never had a banana split and weren't that impressed. They didn't eat the bananas.

We visited Grandma and Grandpa Great and headed for the kids' house about 8 p.m. We forgot a key, so Kali broke into the house like a burglar, climbing a rail and sneaking into a patio window. They all brushed their teeth and went to bed very nicely.

I was very impressed that they were so easy to tend, even if our house looks like the aftermath of a typhoon. Kali is very mature and ready to please and help out. Caleb is a bit of a handful, kind of like a five-year-old boy. I don't have a lot of patience, so he didn't get away with much, and he listened pretty well. Emeline is just a sweetheart. She smiles and laughs a lot, and loves to be held.

We're sad that they're moving, but I'm really glad we had this weekend to spend with them. They won't be too far away, so I hope we'll still get to visit them often, and maybe they can spend some time with us during the summers (I don't know about all three at once, though).

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Jamie and I enjoyed Sacrament meeting so much without the kids, we felt guilty.

Jamie said...

You are welcome to keep them :) Thanks for watching them!