"Gamma"

We went to visit Great Grandma R for a few days (3/17-3/19 2009) while Steve was out-of-town for work. We left Tuesday morning, arriving in time for lunch. Grandma R always cooks up something delicious- always with meat and always accompanied by dessert- for every meal except breakfast. Oh how I look forward to breakfast after a couple days. :) We had a nice chicken salad with buttermilk biscuits and cherry jello salad and for dessert we had a yummy, dense, chocolate cake with cream cheese and cool whip frosting. You should have seen the slice of cake Grandma cut for Emma! I only gave her small bit of it (a decent toddler size piece I think), but that meant that I had this absolutely mondo-sized piece to eat myself. Of course I ate it, and I didn't complain. Emma loved her piece, too, especially the tasty frosting, which she sucked right off.

For some reason Emma does not sleep well at Grandma's. I on the other hand, usually sleep really well, as long as I am not sharing the room with a toddler. So, I haven't slept well at Grandma's in 17 months! :) Despite having slept for a little of the drive down, Emma was about falling asleep at the table so I promptly put her down for a nap, hoping that this would be the trip when she finally would sleep great at Grandma's. She screamed and carried on for about an hour and then finally dropped off to sleep. (I was just about ready to rescue her. Good thing I didn't go in the room!) She only slept for 45 minutes, but I was happy with that. More importantly, Emma seemed happy with that.

This whole time, Porter was outside with Grandma's dog, Sandy, chasing lights and shadows. Since it was a gorgeous day (in the 60s), we decided to take Emma to the park, which is just down the road. Seriously, it would take 5 minutes to walk there, but we drove. I was actually worried about Grandma having to walk. She has slowed down quite a bit this past year or so, and I didn't want to push her too much. So I told her that it would be easier with the diaper bag and all of that if we just drove. I think she bought it! :) Emma, of course, had no opinion one way or another.

At the park, Emma was the happiest little girl! She cruised all over the place, examining old leaf piles, practicing climbing up and down the curbs, trying to climb up the slides- anything and everything was a delight to her. We put her in a swing where I think she could have stayed all afternoon if we let her. She loves to swing! Instead of pushing her for hours on end, I put her back on the ground to do more exploring. It took a bit of convincing, but Grandma and I helped Emma figure out how to go down the slide. It was a short enough slide that I was able to hang on to her from the ground for the whole ride down; I did that the first time. From then on since she didn't go fast at all, she went down by herself at least 3 or 4 more times! She smiled the whole time. Grandma helped situate her from the top, and I kissed her at the bottom.

We took time for a brief snack, and then Emma continued to run around in the warm sun. There were some kids playing in the adjoining school yard, and she was enthralled. She climbed over the curb to the grass and proceeded to head down the hill. If I hadn't stopped her she would have tried to join their game of football!

When it was getting close to dinner time we loaded up and headed back to Grandma's. In honor of St.Pat's we had corned beef sandwiches, leftover jello salad and gigantic pieces of cake. (Grandma told me that we had to finish the whole cake (9x13 pan) by the time we left. I think my arteries squeezed up at that point.)

Bath time was fun. Sandy tried helping by licking off the water spots when she could. Emma splashed and tried drinking water out of the mini pail Grandma had given her to play with. Back in the den, Grandma and I took turns reading stories to Emma. Since she was doing her best to disguise her tiredness, we spent a long time hanging out on the bed. Then we put her in the playpen, shut the door, and tried to ignore her cries for the next 20 minutes.

Emma had a rough night, therefore I had a rough night. I think she was uncomfortable in the play pen so she rolled over a lot and made a lot of noises. At one point she was awake and babbling (once she stopped screaming), and I was afraid that we were going to be up for good at 2 in the morning! Thankfully she fell back asleep. I think she woke up happy at around 6 am. Not too bad for Grandma's.

Wednesday was a much colder and dreary day so we stayed in. Emma loved her cheerios, blueberries and strawberries for breakfast. I ate only enough to stop the rumbling of my tummy in anticipation of the cake fest sure to come (twice). I think Emma took a decent nap after lunch, and when she woke up we headed to the mall.

Stratford Square is farther (I think) than Woodfield Mall, but it is way less crazy and not as big. It is still two or three stories and nice, but if you have ever been to Woodfield you know the craziness. Anyway, I wanted to check Kohl's for toe less pantyhose and a dress for Emma. Grandma and I had fun trying to find a dress that we both liked (she decided to buy it). When I let Emma out of the stroller to try the dress on her, she would hardly stand still. She ran off to disassemble the stacks of jeans as soon as the ordeal was over. Did I mention that she was shirtless? Here was my half naked girl cruising around the toddler section, very close to melting down if I came to close to her. I remained calm and tried some corralling tactics to no avail. I finally had to scoop her up and lock her in the stroller.

Emma resigned herself to the confines of the rolling chair, and we headed to the play area that Grandma had told me about. On the other side of the mall we found the play area already swarming with kids. It took Emma a little bit to warm up to the idea of exploring, but then she was off. The play area had all kinds of climbing things- flower patches low to the ground, a giant tree with a ramp up and through it and a tunnel underneath, a car (miniature), a bridge, a giant mouse reading a book, etc. It was pretty cool. We were only there for about 10 minutes when the cleaning lady showed up and politely asked us all to leave. What a bummer!

Emma had a quick ride on the merry-go-round ride just outside the play area. She enjoyed the first partial ride (we joined in after it had started going), but she was not happy about the second one so we left.

As I was taking Emma out of her car seat back in Grandma's driveway, Grandma was walking around the back of the car. Emma was patting her head (her sign for Grandma that she picked up with Steve's mom) and I said, "Yep, Grandma is walking around the back of the car. You'll see her is just a minute." Then to my complete surprise and amazement Emma said, "Gamma," softly yet undoubtedly clear. I burst with praise and kisses and brought her out to tell Grandma. That was so cool!

Dinner that night was leftover chicken salad, homemade chicken fingers, salad and lots of cake. No wait. Grandma didn't want to serve us the cake again because she was not happy with the recipe. (I think she knew that from the beginning.) Anyway, she brought her tin of cookies and we ate them covered with cake frosting. Yummy.

Bath time was just as fun, and book reading just as precious. Emma fussed for a minimal amount of time before falling asleep. And she had a better night of sleeping. Or I was just so tired that I slept through any noises- who knows! Wake up time was right before 7 am. Nicely done!

After a delicious crepe breakfast (Emma loved her fruit, yogurt, and crepe plate) we packed up and headed back to Wisconsin. It is always so hard to say goodbye to Grandma, but Emma tried making it better by uttering "Gamma" again near the door. Too cute!