Lots of little moments at Grandma's house--I think of my own memories of going to my Grandma's house, and to me, it's the little things that mean the most all these years later. So I want to document some of the essence of Grandma's house for my children.
The doll house is a classic, Many many hours have been spent on this basket of toys and doll house. Alina took her turn. One of the funniest moments when we were getting used to all the new toys was when Alina set up that little blue chair (on the floor, the doll-sized one) in the upright position and attempted to sit in it. Grandma was the one to catch on to what she was doing. We promptly brought up a kid-size chair from the basement, and Alina was content to let the dolly sit in the doll size chair and she had her own little girl size chair.
Bathing in the laundry room sink--This is the perfect amount of water and space for a small child.
It takes a while for Alina to warm up to new people. Grandpa made a valiant effort to give Alina her space, while still trying to pull her in with some silly antics.
Reeeeeeach . . . .
Got it! But she still kept her distance as well as she could.
She eventually warmed up to sitting on Grandpa's lap.
Alina loves to try on shoes. She found a few pairs around the property to stick her toes into.
Grandma is the best read-aloud Grandma ever. When I was a little girl, we would be just like this--cozied up to her while she read lots of chapter books to us. She read to us as long as one of her kids played with her hair and another one or two rubbed her feet with lotion. That was a smart way to wind down your day, Mom! The tradition continued with Grandma reading aloud to the kiddos.
They were trying to finish the book before one of the families of cousins left town, so the photo above was the bedtime reading, and by 7 am the next morning, they were back at it, in the photo below.
I was reminded that it is challenging to keep a 1-year old out of the suitcases while I am traveling--particularly at this stage, when she likes to pull everything out of its place to inspect it. She tried on her brother's underwear and was so proud that she got them all the way on.
Sorry, Alina, Spiderman is for your brother.
School must go on--it's the best thing to have flexibility in our school schedule so we can take a trip like this when it's not the busy season for other families to travel during their breaks. The only drawback is that school came with us--we still got in our daily lessons. It helped that our cousins were in another room of Grandma's house doing the same thing. We wanted to finish on time so we could play with them. Our attempt to let them do their schoolwork together was an epic fail--so for the sanity of the adults, we let them study on their own then they played together the rest of the day. (The other cousins were used to studying with their brothers around. It was David that was too excited to have seat mates, and he disrupted everyone else until I separated him back out.) I think this is the desk Grandpa had in college, so it was a fun place for David to study math.
Let it be known, let it be said that Alina likes food. In fact, she loves it. If I don't clean her up right after she's done eating, the food ends up painted all over her head and face and chair.
She's always happy to turn her meal time into a subsequent art time.
On our last night in town, we watched the NCAA March Madness championship. Alina loves balls, so she was enthralled for a bit of it.
When she lost interest in the basket ball game, Alina put on these socks. Ever so patiently, she put them over her toes, her heel, then pulled them up to her knees. It took her a long time. My mom suggested that I pack a pair of socks to entertain her on the plane the next day, because she stayed so engaged for a long time.
Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa, for letting us come to your house for such a long visit. We love being around you, and I love to watch my kids make memories with you. We all came home feeling more loved and refreshed because we had been with you for such a nice, long time.
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