What Did She Do Monday?

Tags

grandparenting, imagination, toddlers and chores

Earmuffs, Sunglasses, Gloves and Birdseed

Jet doesn’t usually run out of energy before it’s time for her nap, but she reached her limit a little early today. We started the morning with a leisurely breakfast. “Feed me like a baby, please Grandma,” Jet requested when she was nearly finished with her cereal.

“What’s wrong with your hand? Is it broken?”

“No!” She looked at her hand to be sure.

“Is your other hand broken?”

“No!”

“Great! So you don’t need anyone to feed you! You can do it yourself!”

 

“PRETEND I’m a baby, Grandma!”

How silly of me! “Okay, I’ll feed you two bites.”

Playdoh was next on the agenda, or as Jet calls it, “Taydoh.” It’s not that she can’t pronounce it; she just doesn’t choose to say it my way. After I obligingly made 2 frogs, a snowman and an elephant and Jet made 2 gingerbread men, 2 worms and a ball, we set to work emptying the dishwasher and putting away the silverware.

Then it was time to make vegetable soup. Jet watched me chop the vegetables and brown the meat and she added the ingredients to the soup pot. The recipe calls for several bullion cubes but they were wrapped so tightly I couldn’t get them open. “I can do it!” Jet assured me, so I let her try. I was still working on the end folds when she shouted, “I did it!” I bet she can open childproof caps better than I can too!

Shadows

The temperature was predicted to rise into the 60s by the afternoon, but had not yet broken 45 degrees, so we bundled up for our walk. Last week we discovered that Jet greatly prefers wearing a pair of my earmuffs to wearing any kind of hat. She’s definitely a girl after my own heart! Suitably bundled and wearing our gloves and sunglasses too, we set out on a slower than usual walk. We collected some leaves; talked to the neighbor dog Elvis and his person; followed the mailman to his truck; watched the trash pickup and recycling trucks make their rounds; and waved at our shadows.

Back at Grandma’s house, we worked together to move the trash containers up the driveway and put them in the garage. Jet found a can of birdseed in the garage and wanted to fill the feeders, so we moved to the back yard. Some of the seed spilled, so Jet used a “sweeper” (broom) to clean it up.

While Jet swept, I got out the Christmas lights. I don’t plug them in until after Thanksgiving, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to get them up while the sun was shining! Jet helped me untangle the netting lights for the bushes and get them in place. She held one end of the net but couldn’t seem to get the hang of standing in place while I moved away from her.   She watched while I wrapped the light pole and bounced with excitement, badgering me until I turned the lights on. She noticed immediately that half of one netting set didn’t light, causing me to belatedly remember that I had purchased a new set to replace it last year. We worked together to switch the lights and put away the box and the broom.

Our stomachs told us it was past time for lunch. Jet got out her bowl and buckled her baby doll into the booster seat while I made lunch. She ate happily for a while but at a continually slower pace until at last she stopped and stared blankly into space. Suddenly and rather dramatically, she demonstrated that she had hit her limit for the morning by throwing her Sippy cup of milk and the rest of her food on the floor.

I was of the opinion that she was done with her lunch. She didn’t agree, however and decided to make the point that she required further sustenance from a prone position on the hallway floor.

“Are you finished?” I asked when the volume decreased slightly. “Do you need a hug?”

“Yes! I need a meemie, too!” We got her comforter and sat on the couch. “Grandma loves me in the world.”

“Yes, Grandma loves you in the whole, wide world. I love you when you are angry and I love you when you are sad and I love you when you’re happy, too!” She barely made it though her pre-nap stories and into the bed before falling asleep.

Two and a half hours later, she woke in a much better frame of mind. As I opened the bedroom door she gave me her signature smile and a heart-melting compliment: “There’s my pretty Grandma! Play now!”

That evening, I urged Jet to tell her mother about our adventures. As it turns out, taking Marcy outside to poop was the highlight of her day!