Amazed

I never ceased to be amazed by this 2 yr. old. We read a lot everyday as well as go over our letters, numbers, signs, etc. Nothing too serious, he is, after all,only 27 mo. old. Today when we were looking at the numbers 1-10, he pointed to each number and then told me the number, then he showed me on his fingers how many that was. When we go through the alphabet, he tells me the letter and the sound it makes.
This afternoon, he was drawing at his easel. After about 4 pictures, he decided to use markers instead of crayons. I started to take the tops off the markers when he said, "Matt will do it, self, no help Gramma!". I said "what did you say?" so he signed NO HELP! The signing thing may have backfired, what do you think?
No, just kidding, I like that he knows 32 signs, I love that he is saying everything, now doing everything without my help, that means he is growing up way too fast for me.
I watched him today while he played in "his" room (he calls it that, not me) He was cooking with his kitchen, making a hamburger with lettuce and tomato, talking to himself about putting on his "ove glove" which is a little pot holder so he does not burn his hand on the stove.
Maybe I am just amazed at him because I see him everyday....the other grandchildren I do not. Whatever the reason, I would love to keep him little just a while longer but I am afraid he has other ideas. :-)

one proud Papa

Two adorable grandchildren from Raleigh
Three gorgeous girls from the north country
and one fantastic little boy from Syracuse = one Proud Papa!

This is the comforter Jon and Donna picked for the guest room and the headboard we made Felt Snowman Matt and I made this morning. I cut out the shapes and Matt glued them on
Aren't we sooo crafty?

Black Friday

The older I get the less I like shopping, even on nice days. I had not been out of Black Friday for at least 6 yr. It is just too crazy and people are pushing and shoving and downright rude. No, I am happy to wait it out at home in a nice warm bed where I can sleep in......who wants to get up in the middle of the night to be at the store by 4 am? Every year they seem to open earlier.....but 4am, come on now! No, I did not face the crowds at 4 am but I did go at 4 pm, after Wm. came home from work. I was not going to shop, just pick up my pictures from Target and get a card for the shower I have to go to this afternoon. To our surprise, the store was not that crowded. Wm. said it must be a lull between the early morning mob scene and the after dinner shoppers. Whatever it was, we ended up getting pj's for everyone (new pajamas on Christmas eve have always been a family tradition, one we have continued with our children's spouses and our grandchildren). Now our Raleigh family is finished and I have a start on the rest. I have never even started my shopping until after Josh's birthday. We did however bring his birthday gift with us when we went for Thanksgiving dinner. He wanted a turkey fryer. We did get one but his father wanted to be sure they had started cooking dinner before he brought Josh's gift in. No, we are not too sure about fried turkey! Yesterday morning, I made my Christmas lists, I am on a roll now!

Thankful

We went to Canton today to share Thanksgiving dinner with Josh and his family. The weather was yucky up and back but we had an excellent time with the girls.

Jackie served a fabulous meal and Lael is taking after her mother, becoming quite the little hostess. For all of you who were impressed when Jackie said she was making sausage stuffing with her homemade bread, I just wanted to say it was fantastic. Everything tasted so good but then my mother used to say that you enjoy a meal more if you don't have to cook it. (I am very thankful that Jackie loves to cook and entertain)

Lael set the table and poured all the beverages.

Alyssa, the little artist and sweet little Lauren

Grampa and his girls.

I am so thankful for all the wonderful blessings in my life, that I seem to take for granted every day. Thank you, Lord.

Home Again, home again, jiggity jig

Well, I am home from NC. The weather was great for the most of the week. We ran into rain in PA on the way down last Saturday......then again I do not remember going through PA when it was not either raining, snowing, or backed up with construction. Anyway, we spent most of the week in shirt sleeves. Friday it was cool and rainy but not cool by NY standards. Saturday night on the way home, Wm. said is that snow on the ground when we came through Tully. I said I am sure it must just be frost. His remark was since when do we get 4 inches of frost! Snow? Can't be snow yet?!!!! Must be just because of the hills in Tully but when we got to Baldwinsville and Wm. had to shovel a path across the back deck so we could get in, the realization set in that indeed it was snow! I shall try not to whine as we have had fantastic summer and fall and it is, after all, NY.

Morrigan goes to school all year round but she was on her track out (3 week period off school which she spends at the Y.) Monday was a holiday so the school and Y were both closed and Morrigan spent the day with us. We went to the discount fabric store and then she wanted to go to McDonald's for lunch, something she is not in the habit of doing.

Gramma and Grampa with Morrigan and Max

Morrigan Liliana

Grampa and Max

Our plan was for Wm. to put down a new laminate tile floor in the kitchen but when he and Jon went to purchase the tiles, they found it was special order so needless to say, the floor did not get done. We did get some material and covered the headboard in the guest room to match the new comforter we got them for Christmas. We purchased enough material to make matching valances for the windows. Another glitch came when the sewing machine would not work. Jon had taken a day off work to help Wm. with the floor and because that was not happening, we spent the day trying to get the sewing machine to work. I ended up bringing home the material and will mail the finished valances back down.

Jon and Donna took us to Red Lobster for Wm. birthday (OK, so Red Lobster is my favorite, he is flexible) Friday we went to lunch with Donna's parents. Morrigan is spelling everything, the way Lael is and Max is as much a mama's boy as Lauren is a mama's girl. We had a wonderful time in NC; but I am glad to be home for a little while anyway, Thanksgiving we are going to Canton to have dinner with Josh, Jackie and three of the most beautiful girls in NNY.

to my sweet William

Happy Birthday, William. I am so very blessed to be your wife. You are the best husband, father and grandfather anyone could ever have. Thank you for loving me all these years. I love you so very much!

more ramblings

The last few days Matthew has been wanting to cook. No, not with his little kitchen, although he does play there throughout the day, he wants to cook in my kitchen. OK, before I go any further, I feel I need to clarify this; his "cooking" consists of making breakfast; baking cookies and cupcakes, making popcorn. Now before you gasp and say, is she crazy?; I assure you I am but nonetheless, he does not touch the stove. He puts the bacon in the microwave. He told me yesterday, bacon cooks on #4 and popcorn is 333 and the big "go" button. He likes to whisk the eggs in the measure cup before I put them into the pan and on the stove. Most of the time, he does not even eat his egg, he just likes to whisk. * this is not something we do everyday*
He mixes the cake batter for the cupcakes and even puts them in the mini muffin tins as well as the cookie dough on the cookie sheets. He never liked to hear the mixer going so I was very surprised he wanted to mix the cookie dough. He put the chicken in the roasting pan and put the seasoning on it for Papa's dinner on Mon. and then put ham in the pan to bake complete with glaze yesterday.
He has become quite the little helper. Today he asked me if he could clean the toilet! He put away 12 rolls of toilet paper this morning. OK, that was a near disaster. He opened the pkg. and was just about to put an entire roll in the toilet. I asked where he thought it went and he said toilet paper goes in the toilet. Then he remembered it went under the sink :-)
I love that he enjoys helping even though it is a lot more work for me than just doing it myself. He really enjoys helping so I guess my job now is to fan the flames. I remember my mother never allowing my sister or me to help her, she always said it made more work for her. The truth is when we got married, we didn't have a clue how to do anything. So regardless of how much of a mess he makes or how much longer it takes for him to do it rather than me, I will continue to explain how to do something, and then let him do it!

Saturday morning William and I are off to NC to see Morrigan and Max. I have not seen them since Max was born and am so ready to go see them. I really miss them. Well I miss all the grandchildren with the exception of Matt. I really do love being a grandmother. We will be in Raleigh from the 10th to the 17th.
William will be 61 on Friday!

Alyssa's party

Susan, Matthew and I drove up to Canton on Saturday for Alyssa's party. Will had to work (he also worked on Sunday) so the plan was to trade vehicles with him on Friday night and drive our vehicle to Canton. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men......Tom said the noise we thought were the tires on the Explorer was actually some seal on the passenger side rear wheel. Because it is rear wheel drive, Tom did not think we should drive it to Canton. He called and had Driver's Village order the parts and he drove into work today to get it fixed. The plan was to have the oil changed in it today because of going to NC on Sat.
Alyssa's party was a birthday festival complete with bounce house and cotton candy machine. We had hot dogs and baked beans (which BTW, were fantastic) Matt loved running around outside but he was not too sure about the bounce house......I found that strange as all he does here is jump on the couch, the beds, etc.
Here is a picture of the birthday girl and her cake. You already know I am not much of a photographer so we will need to wait till Susan sends me the ones she took. Jackie made an Alyssa safe cake to look like a cloud and the cupcakes were balloons floating in the sky!

Bob the Builder

I tried to get some pictures of Bob the Builder before he left for his other Grandma's last night. He was not the most cooperative (surprise). Tom got a couple more and I will share them as soon as he shares them with me. OK, so I am not the best photographer but you get the idea and you can see the shirt that I worked so hard to sew........what do you think?
Saturday will find Susan, Matt and Gramma heading to Canton again for Alyssa's birthday party. This year Josh and Jackie have asked that we give her art supplies, books, etc. While I understand their position, how excited can you get over construction paper and paint brushes? Last week when we were there I got Alyssa some play dough, and believe me that made her very excited......she loves that stuff. Lael and Matthew love it too!