Taking the Scenic Route

#192: Happy Birthday Zach! Zach was excited to spend his birthday with his mom for the first time in years. It was a lot of fun. In the evening we went to Carrabbas.

Naturally, I couldn’t stop with one picture. lol.

#191: Ready to go Shopping. Every day she was here, Zach, Zora and Zandra would head to the store, partly to shop for food, but mostly to get a “walk” in. It is entirely too hot to walk outside and so they would do laps in Walmart or Dillons, depending on what they were going shopping for that day. (and every day yeilded great food…we all enjoy food way too much. lol). Before they left to go out, I grabbed the camera and Zane to get some photos of the four of them.

And a real hug from Zane, arms wrapped around Grandma and everything, before they take off for the store.

And, the evenings feast is laid out. Everything from ribs, chicken, and catfish to sushi, how appropriate for us.

#190: Book Love. Both kids love to be read to, and through out the stay, Zandra obliged them with animated reading of stacks of books. This is one of the Todd Parr books Zane loves…about underwear. lol.

After reading the book “Muncha Muncha Muncha”, Grandma Zandra and Zane went outside to give our suburban (wild) rabbit a carrot to munch on. The rabbit hangs out by the fence door in the shade these days.

Takes “Muncha Muncha Muncha” outside to read again.

A family that reads together…

#189: A couch, a few pillows, and a lot of fun. These two sat on the couch for a good while tonight just playing. It was really wonderful.

Something not pictured, but just as special was this morning when Zane crawled into Zandra’s bed and just snuggled with her for a while before they got up for the day. It was very sweet.

Zora finally pooped on the potty too. Yay! She was quite proud of herself too.

When I was buckling Zane in after ST at WSU I asked him (as I usually do) what he did today. For the first time he was able to tell me the entire sequence of the hour, occasionally backtracking to correct himself if he got something out of order. He did it with no visual support at all too. One of the last things was him playing a game with “L”. I asked him who played with him, and he first answered “both of us” (another eyebrow lifter…a pronoun used correctly), and I asked him again (I had heard him rehearsing “”L” and I played a game” under his breath, so I wanted to give him a chance to use the sentence) and he was able to dig the rehearsed sentence out of his brain. It took a while, and he struggled with word recall, but he DID IT! WOOHOO!

#188: Grandma Returns. Although we we glad to see her, it was a sad trip for her. Her friend’s cancer had metasticized to her brain and the situation was not a good one, so after a short visit, she turned around to come back. It was upsetting. She got back here in time for supper and we, once again, found ourselves enjoying conversation over savory smells of food. This time homemade red sauce with pasta and homemade meatballs. This time they used onions, so I had my own without sauce. Zora just had to be in the middle of the action, of course.

And, naturally, we had more music at the end of the day.

#187: Grandma leaves, summer wardrobe arrives. We were sad to see Grandma go, but she needed to go visit some friends, a couple who both have cancer. She left early to drive to Dallas/Fort Worth. After she left, the wardrobe that I ordered from Children’s Place (a major sale, plus another online coupon, plus a free shipping coupon. SCORE!). Now she has clothes that both fit and match.

The last of the firework fun, charcoal snakes.

Enjoying the “turn to dust” aspect of charcoal snakes.

Summer debris. Chalk, poppers, and snakes. Somebody needs to get out the broom. lol.

We had leftover watermelon from Grandma’s visit, we threw it in the freezer and used it with a banana in the vitamix to make watermelon “ice cream”. Yum. (healthy too)

#186: Grandmas are such good influences.

Daddy shows the kids how to throw “poppers” (those little things you throw that pop upon impact)

Zora gets Grandma to play cars with her. Her current favorite is the fire truck she got as a potty reward.