New Look

Got my hair cut this afternoon. I have only had hair this short once before in my life.

So, what do you think?

Stuff

I am very certain that is not really an ideal title for a post, likewise, I am not even certain that the abundance of thoughts overcrowding my head will come pouring out in a way that could even be construed as entertaining. Now, you must have known I was going to post whether or not I thought the content was post worthy.

The weather in Syracuse has been gorgeous. This is the 9th day in a row that temperatures have been in the high 70 - 80 range. My backyard neighbor's trees are filled with blossoms and his flowers are beginning to come up along the back fence between our properties. Not to be outdone, the small pathetic little garden adjacent to our front porch is starting to show some life,. My hostas have broken through the soil as well as some of the other plants we have there (if I knew what they were I would tell you, I love the way they look but have no idea what they are; something I transplanted from the back yard when we first moved here.) In case you have not realized it yet, my thumbs are not green!

Matt and I want to have a vegetable garden this year. In the past, we have had them but stopped when we had 3 bassets (one who was a digger) vying for backyard space. Now with "the girls" gone and Matt big enough to help me out there, this seems like a good time to put one in. I love fresh vegetables and would love to be able to walk out and pick some instead of waiting for my neighbor to share his overflow with me. Matt wants us to have a garden "like Little Bear has"
With the weather being as warm as it has been, Matt has been wanting to spend every waking moment outside. We really need to invest in some new outside toys. He still does play on the Little Tykes slide that we got from our neighbor last year but it is small despite the fact it said it is suitable for ages up to 5. We have the crocodile see saw but that does not work the best with only one child on it. I found a little sun umbrella for the table but that is not a lot of fun, unless we are having a snack or our lunch out there. Our back yard is totally fenced in which makes it a perfect play yard for Matt, the drawback is he has grown enough that he can open the gate so we are forced to keep it locked. He stands there shaking the gate and screaming, "let me outta here, I want to go in the front yard"!

a study in contradictions

Matthew seems to be a study in contradictions. While he loves to put on his yellow rain boots and splash and stomp in any mud and water he find, he loves to clean. He sweeps the dirt off the back deck, swiffers our floors, cleans the toilet (no, he does not touch any cleaner; we use the wand and the flushable brushes ), washes dishes and is always straightening things. He checks under the couch and TV cabinet for dust bunnies with a flashlight.
He also finds it necessary to "read" the directions on the Fresh brush flushable package every morning before he cleans the toilet. (Only contradiction I find there is most males never want to read the directions)

He really surprised me this morning. He was drawing on the chalkboard and I wrote his name at the top of the board. He spelled out the letters: M A T T; "that is my name, Gramma". Then I wrote: PAPA, MOMMY, GRAMMA, DADDY and ROSIE on the board. I did not say anything, just wrote the words. He spelled out each word and told me what it said. I knew he could say the alphabet and that he could recognize all the letters but I had no idea he knew what the letters spelled. He can count to 20 as well as recognize the numbers from 1-20. We try to work our letters and numbers every day but this really showed me how much he is absorbing. Makes this old fat gramma very proud!

On another note, yesterday we went with Wm's brothers and sister and their spouses to the Apple Vali country club to celebrate his Mom's 85th birthday. It was a gorgeous ride through the hills to LaFayette. We all had the all you can eat Prime Rib buffet. The buffet was excellent and there were a quite a few choices; not a lot that were gluten free though!

Freaky Friday???

What a day this has turned out to be! It started out great. Matt cleaned the bathroom before he even ate his breakfast. He had some cheerios for breakfast but soon decided he wanted to make an omelet. Need I remind you he is only 2 1/2? What 2 yr. old wants to make an omelet? Yes, we did make a cheese omelet We watched Little Bear and then he wanted to make a craft......his idea was to make an itsy, bitsy spider. I dragged out our craft supplies and he decided we should also make rain and sunshine. Alrighty then! It took a few minutes but we did decide on a plan. It worked out great but no, I never got a picture.

From there we watched a video and he wanted to sit on my lap. His allergies were acting up all week and his nose was running and he has been sneezing up a storm; sitting on my lap to watch a video was something he has wanted to do all week. Part way through the video, I realized he was asleep. I got up and carried him into the nursery and put him in the crib. This was where things got out of hand. He immediately jumped up and climbed right out of the crib. (something he has not done before which is why we still have the crib in there) We spent the next hour getting him calmed down and back in the crib for his nap. He was not about to sleep so I got him out, gave him some lunch, which he did not want (he had asked for Frito's and white dip. "I absolutely love Frito's, did I tell you that, Gramma?"

After a few attempts at getting him to sleep, I finally put him back in the crib and told him to stay there and rest if he was not going to sleep. This is when he shouted at me "Why are you making me spend my whole day in this bed?" What???? Talk about dramatic! From the first time I put him in the crib until he made that remark was maybe 2 hours.


Papa came home from work a few minutes early today and took Matt with him to the grocery store. The back seat in the car was down on one side and up on the other for his car seat. When he got in, he stood on the side that was down and said, "Oh, this is splendid".

After today, I will need tomorrow to recover!

Whirlwind weekend

We had the opportunity of going to Canton on Fri. for Grandparents Day. The experience was bittersweet for me. I am so blessed that we were able to go and see the girls and share in Grandparent's Day with them but because we had to get up at 5:30am to leave by 6:30am, I was definitely not rested. Keep in mind, I am not nor will I ever be a morning person. I hate to get up and lately I am not doing too well with riding either. 3 hr. drive is a longer ride than I can tolerate well any more.

I found this picture of Josh with my father on Grandparent's Day when Josh was in 6th grade. I asked if we could get a picture of Lael with Papa. I am planning on putting the pictures together.

Not to be outdone, my little Fancy Nancy, aka Alyssa wanted a picture with Papa also and he was not about to say NO.

We had promised the girls they could pick out a place for us to eat lunch. They chose McCarthy's in Canton. Once we got home, both girls wanted to stitch their badges from the wildlife center on their respective back packs. We had a great time. They. especially Lael, loves sewing. Once the backpacks were done, Lael wanted to keep sewing. We had no material for her to use, so being the resourceful girl she is, she remembered a long skirt in the dress up closet which had the waist band ripped and it was torn down the side also. It was one huge fuchsia silk-like rectangle. She decided to make herself a little purse. She did this entirely on her own. I am so very impressed. Below are a couple of pictures of her with the new purse.

Alyssa was not quite as taken with sewing as Lael. Alyssa and I read Fancy Nancy a couple of times.

Didn't get to see all of our old friends from CFC but feel very blessed to see those who were there.