I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map!

I mentioned before how Matt has started to watch the old Dora videos we had for Lael and Alyssa.......yesterday we watched Noggin on Demand where we saw Dora and Super Map.

He was running around the house singing "I'm the map". So while he took his nap, I got some things together and we made Super Map when he got up.

Well, what do you think, one crafty gramma, eh? Today, he got out a pile of coffee filters and when he was done playing, I did not want to throw them away. So, he made some butterflies with them. He got bored with the painting long before the butterflies were done but I think they look really cute anyway. We got some new paint brushes that are filled with paint but it takes a lot of coordination to make them work.....you have to push in the middle of the brush at the same time you paint......difficult even for an old fat gramma but this 2 yr. old held his own!

Morrigan turns 6

Yesterday, my little southern princess turned 6. I had planned to post yesterday but unfortunately never did. She is on her way to Disney World with Donna's sister, Suzanne, who took her last year. This time she will be staying for an entire week! Dinner with Cinderella, as well as another trip to the Bibbity Bobbity Boo Salon.

Max is having tubes put in his ears while she is gone. His surgery is scheduled for 2/28. Please pray for Max regarding this routine surgery. Thanks.

Well, it just would not feel like my blog if I failed to mention what Matt has been up to today.

He got all the ribbons he could find in my sewing box and put them out on the LR rug. "Be very careful, Gramma" he told me, "the LR is really a snake pit". "Are you afraid of the snakes, Gramma?" I said I was but he assured me not to be afraid, he would save me!

couldn't resist

I couldn't resist posting this picture of Matt in the shirt he wore this morning. Isn't it a riot? My DIL, Donna, has always insisted this was true. Jackie, I just wanted to make sure you knew it was true, also! :-)

Haircut

Just in case you thought I was exaggerating about how much Matt disliked having his haircut a few weeks ago. We finally retrieved this from the phone:

random thoughts of an old fat gramma

Because he loves to draw and paint so much I guess it should not have surprised me when Matt drew some actual faces. He made some circles, then added eyes, mouth and hair. It was not the usual scribble drawings he has been in the habit of doing. This was actually recognizable as faces. They were good enough that Wm. asked if I drew them. I guess the surprise was not that he did them but that one day his drawings were scribble drawings and the very next day it was a perfect face. I love it! Maybe have just forgotten how quickly a toddler absorbs and learns and grows.

I think I mentioned that I was redoing the nursing mothers and family rooms at the church. I ordered the gliders and we picked them up on Sat. Now we have just 1 week to put them together (one down, three more to go) to be sure they are not broken or have any parts missing. After one week, they belong to us even if they are broken. (I find that to be a strange policy but I guess it works for Penney's) Now we need to find the time to paint the rooms and set them up. I am excited about this. Right now mothers are nursing in the same chairs we have in the sanctuary. I think that they will be much more comfortable in the gliders and ottomans. The rooms will have different paint colors and while the gliders and ottomans are all cherry, the cushions are different in each room. Oatmeal for the nursing mothers room and sage green for the family room.

Wm. has been extremely faithful to the celiacs diet. He even checked the caramel creme candy he eats all the time. Guess what??? They have wheat in them. Who would have thought. I actually thought they were 100% sugar! Matt and I made a wheat free cake yesterday. Wm. ate it but so did Matt who proclaimed it "dewishes".

Cowboy Matt????

Wm. always says "what goes around, comes around". Lately, Matthew's favorite video was one Lael and Alyssa used to watch at our house when we lived in Canton, "Cowgirl Dora".

As you can tell, Cowboy Matt likes to get right into it! :-)

phone fiacso

Ever have one of those days? You know the kind where you can not believe that you actually did something.....something very, very stupid! I had one of those days this weekend. If you remember back just after Christmas, I washed Wm.'s cell phone.......well, believe it or not, I actually washed his new one. Now I am not making excuses for myself but Wm. was already gone when I got up on Sat. morning. I decided to do the laundry. I made the same grand assumption I did last time, that his cell phone was with him and not in his work pants in the hamper. Doesn't she check the pockets I hear you asking yourselves. Yes, she does. Unfortunately, Wm. had his cell phone in the pocket on the leg of his pants, like the carpenter jeans have. And no, I never checked that pocket. I have no idea why not, other than I thought the phone was with him, like it usually is.
When he came home and I told him what I had done, he wasted no time telling Susan. After all, she paid for the phones and has us on her plan (a perk for watching Matt). When I washed the last phone, she got Tom a new one and had Wm.'s # put on Tom's old phone. (the old one was a camera phone so it was not that old) She told Tom who said I had better check ALL the pockets before I do the wash and then he said "Dad needs to take responsibility for taking the phone out of his pants pocket at night when he gets home".
Yes, we will both be more responsible in the future. What about a new phone? Wm. ordered one on ebay like the one he had. The shipping was twice the phone price!
Lesson learned (I hope, anyway)

Happy Birthday, Max

Happy Birthday, Max

Our sweet Max will be a year old on February 10th. I feel very bad that we will not make it down for his birthday. Love you my sweet boy. Have a wonderful day!

very busy 2 yr. old

It gets a little more difficult everyday for me to keep up with Matthew. He goes nonstop from the time he gets here around 7:30 until he goes down for a nap at 11. After his third breakfast, at 9am we put dinner in the crockpot. He drew with his crayons, then with chalk on his easel. Then he "cooked" in his play kitchen. Then he washed dishes (plastic ones) in the sink. After which we needed to dry his clothes in the dryer. (this is getting pretty old now and I probably should tell him he can't play in the sink.......on the other hand, other than the frustration wet clothes causes me, he is not hurting anyone and he absolutely loves playing in the water) He insists he is not playing in the water but "doing the dishes". We had three bathroom runs (quick, Gramma, run like the wind) Then we made a tent in the living room from the cushions on the couch. Then we played with the cutting board and knife set (Melissa and Doug) he got for Christmas from Lael, Alyssa and Lauren. He absolutely loves this and plays with it throughout the day. Time for juice and a snack and then some more drawing. Time for a nap (yippee).OK, not before we read the Van Gogh book 3 xs and the feelings book once. Well, I start to read a sentence, he finishes it. This afternoon we made cookies, krispy treats and a pudding pie. Did I mention he loves to cook? We no sooner finish one thing until he wants to make something else. I thought we could take it easy for a few days because Papa's doctor put him back on the celiac diet. I said "Papa can not eat cookies anymore, Matt" to which he replied, "Daddy can". Daddy and Mommy gave up chocolate for lent, so it we tried our hand at oatmeal cookies. This is only the second time I ever made them. He also has a thing for jumping.....off the windowseat, off the couch, from area rug to area rug......you get the idea. My heart is in my throat during our gymnastics. First we jump, then we tumble. Yep, the more active Matt gets, the more this old fat gramma feels her age. OK, maybe not my age.......by 6 pm, I feel about 80.

He sampled the cookies which he delcared to be "dewishus" (delicious). I finally put curtains up in the office, I have had only a blind there since we moved in 2+ yr. ago. He came in the office and announced, "Gramma, you got some new, ah.....curtains". I said "Yes, I did". He said "Oh, they are lovely". Now what 2 yr. old says lovely??????

Really missing the girls! Morrigan and Max both have birthdays this month. This will be the first time since she has been born that we have not gone down for her birthday.

edit: After reading this outloud, I realized it sounded like I was not happy with my "job". Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, there is nothing I would rather be doing!

Saturday morning at Snip-its

Yesterday morning found us at Snip-its, a haircutter for kids. Matt hates to have his haircut. In fact, he was sounding like a broken record "NO HAIRCUT!". I tried to trim it a few times but it was so difficult with him trying to dodge the scissors. Susan cut part of it when he was asleep, however, he moved unexpectedly and there was chunk missing from the front.

Anyway, yesterday we took him to Snip-its. We did not tell him before hand it was to get a haircut. He wanted Papa to go also. When we walked in, he began by examining the place (we were the only ones there) We were certain they would need all three of the staff there to hold him down. They asked him if he was ready for his haircut and he lost it. Despite the snip-it cartoons running on the TVs, the receptionist blowing bubbles and giving him a lollypop, my poor little Matthew sobbed most of the time they cut his hair. He kept sobbing "Mama hold you", "Gramma hold you". Papa, well when the crying started, he went outside to wait in the van. By this time, a lot of kids had come in for haircuts.

It was a little shorter than we had wanted it to be but on the upside, he won't have to go back real soon.

It never ceases to amaze me everyday as I watch Matthew learn and grow. I feel that my job with Matt is the same as it was with Josh when we homeschooled: to fan the flames. I used to be surprised at how much Alyssa loved to draw. That seems to be the same vane Matt is in now. He draws on the chalkboard, the whiteboard, paints on paper and draws with crayons. He will color pictures I print off the web but he does not care one bit about coloring in a coloring book. He must draw, paint, etc at least 15-20 pictures a day. No, I can not save that many. I do save the best each week for his parents. I date them and write what it is when he tells me about the picture (something he does more and more of)

Wm. learned that he has to go back on the diet for celiacs disease again. This will put a real cramp in Matthew's afternoons. Every afternoon he wants to bake something.

I have my consultation for cataract surgery on 2/12. Ah, to be able to see again will be refreshing.

I will leave you with this picture. Where are Matt's clothes? In the dryer, where they always seem to be as he absolutely loves playing in the water. What is on his head? A net bag that the starfish came in. Why is he wearing it on his head? I have no idea. I laughed the first time he did it so he decided it must be funny to wear it.