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October 23, 2003
10.23.03:
The Grandparents visit…
My parents visited with us for the past two weeks. They arrived on a Saturday afternoon, while Mitch was napping and Rachel and I were out grocery shopping. When we pulled into the garage, we could see their car, and Rachel let out a big cheer. We let them relax and unwind for an hour, while waiting for Mitch to wake up from his nap. My mom got busy in the kitchen planning her menus for the next 10 days, and Grandpa John went along with us to the Rice Harvest Festival in old town Katy. We parked at the hall, and took the shuttle bus over to the festival and carnival. Mitchell enjoyed the bus ride. We let Rachel get her face painted and then ate our way down the street of food booths. My favorite (as always) was the roasted corn on the cob. We had funnel cake, barbeque, and Jerry and Grandpa John had beer. It was hot and humid. Mitch didn’t want to walk or ride in the umbrella stroller, so we took turns carrying him. We got some balloons and the kids ate popcorn. Just your typical fall street festival. We headed over to the carnival rides and let Rachel get a look at all the kiddie rides before deciding which ones she wanted to try. She chose the rollercoaster for her first ride. She stood in line, and handed over her tickets, and then climbed in the front seat. She had never ridden on a rollercoaster before, so I wanted to catch her facial reactions on camera. Grandpa John and Jerry stood cheering her along, and I managed to get a few pictures of her. Her face was mostly wide-eyed shock, but she did not cry. After the ride ended, I thought she’d not want to try any more rides, but I was wrong. She got in line to ride the dragons, the canoes, the bugs, and her favorite (and Mitch’s) was the super slide. It was similar to the slide we rode last year. We climbed up the stairs and together we sat on a burlap sack and then slid down together. She loved it. Of course, she wanted to ride it over and over. And we did. We walked around to look at some of the games and other rides, but she was not interested. Mitch wanted to get on the slide, so I took him up and we rode down together. As soon as we landed, he jumped up and said, “again, again!” And, so we rode down again and again. After about 3 hours of eating and walking and riding the rides, we were tired. We took the shuttle bus back to our car and then piled in and drove home. Grandma was relaxing in front of the laptop playing Free Cell. She is addicted, I’m afraid.
The next morning, we went to church. My parents enjoyed seeing our church for the first time and they were impressed by the pastor. Rachel showed Grandpa where her Sunday school class was, he got to meet her teacher, and see her artwork. Outside, she showed him the kids’ play land and Mitch pointed to the shuttle buses. We went home and had a nice lunch and relaxed before it was time for AWANA. Grandpa John went along with Rachel & I. He sat in the classroom as a guest and was able to watch Rachel as we had our lessons, puppet time, craft time, game time, and soon it was time to go home. My mom had a lasagna waiting for us, and Mississippi Mud.
The following week sped by in a blur of busy days with home-cooked meals and desserts galore. It was a luxury for me to sleep in a bit and just leave for work in the morning without having to get the kids up, dressed, fed, and dropped off before heading to work. The kids stayed home with Grandpa John and Grandma Lynn. Grandpa took them on walks and for ice cream cones and to the playground and to the store. They went to the new library and picked out books. Rachel has her own library card now. Grandpa read books to the kids and planned his naps to coincide with Mitch’s. Grandma stayed busy in the kitchen cooking and baking each day. She made chocolate cupcakes with Rachel and they frosted them with pink icing. Wednesday night, my mom and I dropped Rachel off at Kids Praise and we did a little shopping before picking her up. She bought some new pants and a dress, and I got a new pair of dress shoes.
On Saturday morning, Rachel and I went to Stride Rite to get her shoes for the fall. Her feet have grown so much. We found a pair of dressy black shoes for church and a pair of flat leather Mary Janes. On the way home we stopped at Kohl’s to pick up some PJs for Mitch. Rachel looked at the toys and showed me a Chloe Bratz doll set that she wanted. I told her that we would put it on the list for Santa, and when she wasn’t looking I slipped it into the cart. When we went to the register, I distracted Rachel by showing her some Dr. Suess books on display. I handed the box to the clerk and asked her to let me pay for it without Rachel seeing it. She said with a wink, “don’t worry, Santa does a lot of shopping at Kohl’s,” as she put it in a bag beneath the counter. I was able to buy it without Rachel seeing me do it. But, when it came time to pay, I opened my wallet and realized that my ATM card was missing. Again! This was the second time in as many weeks that I had lost my ATM card. I had used it the day before to make a deposit and withdraw cash. I wrote a check, and we drove to the bank. The clerk pulled up our accounts and confirmed my transactions of the prior day and confirmed that no other transactions had been made using the card. They suspect that ATM machine shredded the card after the transaction. Three cheers for another one of my Alzheimer moments!
My parents insisted on babysitting the kids Saturday night while Jerry and I went out for date night. We wanted to have dinner and see a movie, but we had a lot of other things we wanted to do, as well, including shopping for a bed for Mitchell. We went to Star Furniture and spent some time browsing through the children’s furniture department. There were several sets that we liked, and we also looked at the bunk beds. Mitch is not ready for a bunk bed just yet. We sat on the beds and talked about the layout of our bedrooms, and what would be best, especially on down the road in a few more years. We don’t want to buy something that is too “boyish” and we still think we want a set of bunk beds, eventually. I also want to move Mitch into the guestroom (in a few years) and move the guest furniture into Mitch’s room because it is the smallest of the bedrooms. As we talked, we realized that we really needed to invest in a good mattress set first. We went to another furniture store and bought a bookcase for Rachel’s room. And then we went to two different mattress stores and settled on a Sealy set which would be delivered on Tuesday. We took the bookcase home and unloaded it in the garage, checked on the kids (and grandparents) and then went out to dinner at Babin’s seafood house. Because the movie we wanted to see didn’t start until 10:30, we had plenty of time. We had drinks at the bar while waiting for our table marker to start blinking. It was nice to have good conversation with my husband over a great meal. After dinner, we had some time to kill, so we did some shopping at BRU and the super store. (We recently had to put a lock on our fridge because Mitch loves to play in the fridge. Jerry found a lock at BRU and so far (knock wood), it works like a charm. It’s white and secures by fitting the snap into a buckle. Rachel knows how to open it and lock it, which is fine, but it frustrates the heck out of Mitch.) So, at BRU, we bought some more of the locks which Jerry is going to put on our stereo cabinet doors. Mitch has taken over our CD collection and loves to turn the stereo on, usually at maximum volume. We bought some more safety knobs for the stove and a side rail for Mitch’s twin mattress set so he won’t fall out of the bed. After shopping at the super store, we went to the Cinemark to see the Runaway Jury. We enjoyed the movie, although it varied from the book, which is so typical with movies. We didn’t get home until 1:30, so it was a late night.
Although we planned on going to Sunday school at 9:30, I asked my dad to drop Rachel off at Sunday school, while the rest of us got ready. My mom made an egg casserole (thanks Jenny) which was delicious. We went to church services at 11 a.m. and then picked Rachel up in her classroom. My mom took pictures of Rachel in her classroom and posing on the indoor slide. My mom spent the day cooking and baking, Jerry watched the kids, and I took my dad to the Texans vs. Jets game. It was a beautiful day. We arrived late, so we navigated through the blue lot for quite some time before securing a parking space. We had to move someone’s grill out of the way, but we found a spot. There are 4 sponsored entrance ramps at Reliant stadium, and our ramp is the Miller Lite ramp, which just happens to be the furthest away from our parking lot. I didn’t mind, but my dad was huffing and puffing and when we arrived at the ramp, there was a major pileup of people tightly packed waiting in line to enter the Miller ramp. They said it was due to all the tailgaters who were partying in the parking lots until the last minute. While we were waiting to enter the gates, we heard the sound of firecrackers going off inside the stadium which meant the Texans had just scored. By the time we got to our seats, the Texans were leading 7-0 and then they scored again to make it 14-0. It was a great day for a game. I just love Reliant Stadium. The stadium is just awesome, with most every seat filled. The roof was open for this game. The sun was shining, but since the game started at 3 p.m., the sun had already passed over our seats, so we sat in the shade. It’s more than just going to the game, it’s the whole game day experience—the stadium, the atmosphere of cheering fans, food, drinks, the entertainment, the whole nine yards. The halftime entertainment was provided by the U.S. Marines Silent Drill Team. Very impressive, indeed! We remembered to bring the binoculars this time, and it was nice to check out some of the action up close. We left with 4 minutes remaining in the game, which was the perfect time to get the heck out of Dodge. We managed to walk to the car and exit the parking lot just in time. We listened to the end of the game on the radio as we sailed out of there in record time. My mom had dinner ready when we walked in the door, and afterwards, my dad made a freezer of homemade ice cream on the back patio. The kids helped with the ice and salt. He put the beater in a large bowl and let the kids use their spoons to sample the ice cream before it was hardened. Later, when we were enjoying our ice-cream around the kitchen table, Mitch made everyone laugh when he, for the first time, started calling me “Megan!” The first time he said it (I believe after hearing my parents call me “Megan” for nearly two weeks), he said, “hey Megan!” We all just looked at him and then burst into laughter, and then he said it over and over, “Megan! Megan! Megan!” I know you aren’t supposed to laugh during times like this, but, as I told my mom, I couldn’t help myself. Hearing my 2-year-old son call me Megan was just over the edge, funny to me.
On Monday night my mom and I went out for drinks and a movie. Although she kept calling it Irresistible Forces (?), she really wanted to see Intolerable Cruelty because she likes Catherine Zeta Jones. She’s a big fan and told me about a small scar that Catherine has on her throat from a tracheal tube that was inserted when she was a teenager. Apparently Catherine refuses to have the scar covered by makeup so I spent most of the movie noticing her scar, when I otherwise would have neither noticed nor cared about it. After the movie, my mom wanted to stop for a margarita, but the place was closed when we pulled in, so we just headed home instead. I stayed up late getting Mitchell’s bag ready for the next day, when he would start going to school with Rachel.
My parents said goodbye to us on Tuesday morning. Jerry and I got the kids up and ready. It was Mitch’s first day in a formal daycare environment. They waved goodbye to us as we pulled out of the garage. Jerry drove off to work in his truck. My parents left later in the morning after rush hour traffic died down a bit. On the way to school, I listened to Rachel giving Mitch a pep talk. The Big Sister was telling Mitchell about all the fun he would have. I had to laugh when she said, “Look Mitch, you are going to schoool today. No more Angie’s house. No more Karen’s house. You are free-eeeeee!” She told him that he would get to play on the playground, get to color every day, get to learn his letters and say the Pledge of Allegiance, and say the blessing at lunch time. He listened carefully. When we arrived, I carried Mitch inside along with all his “stuff,” his favorite quilt made by Grandma Orma, extra changes of clothing, a package of size 6 diapers for the first week. I had breakfast with the kids in the café and then left them playing together at the Thomas-the Train table in the lobby. Mitch cried a little bit, but he ended up having a super first day. And I got to watch him all day long from my computer screen. The school has web monitoring in all the classrooms. I believe it’s one of the nicest features. To be able to watch my children on the web cams throughout the day gives me great peace of mind. I watched Mitch sit at the table and do crafts, then they played inside, then they went to the café for their snacks, and I watched him sit at the little table and drink his milk out of a Dixie cup. They returned to the classroom, and worked on peg wooden puzzles, and they drew the letter Y. They had circle time on the floor where the teacher read to them as they sat in a circle around her. They played outside and then came in for lunch. I watched as Mitch napped on a mat (shock!) while buried under Grandma Orma’s comfy quilt. After their naps, they had another snack in the café, and they played outside and came inside to work at the tables again. When I picked him up last night, I stood outside the glass door, watching him playing with blue feathers for awhile. When he caught my eye and realized I was there, he came bounding across the room, yelling, “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!” and he jumped into my arms and held on tight. It was a great feeling, one that I wish I could put in a box and unwrap in about 20 years. As Oprah would say, that was my "Aha!" moment.
Warmly,
Megan
millimaki@yahoo.com
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/m/millimaki/
For those wanting to chat, here is a link to my Talk to Me Board which we will use until iP responds to my emails.
TTM: http://babiestoday.com/cgi-bin/boards/meganm.pl
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