I Love Mondays And Sunshine

Mondays get a bad rap for many reasons and for many people. I love them. Mom drops off Hannah between 8:30 and 9:00 in the morning before she takes Isaac to Mommy and Me preschool. I meet them at the curb to get Hannah, so that the car does not have to be turned off. Isaac always greets me with "Gramma, I won't be here this morning." I know, you have school right? "Yeah andI will be here at lunch Gramma so wait for me okay?"

This is my 3 hours uninterrupted with Hannah where I can just give her all of my attention without guilt. I love it. She used to get in a morning nap before Isaac gets here. The past two weeks have been changing as she sits in her crib singing to her animals and dolls. When I open the door, she gives me a look and lays back down, like she is going to nap. As soon as I close the door, she is right back at it. It is a waste of my alone time with her anyway so I am going to skip the morning nap and just let her take the afternoon one. I feed her lunch before her brother gets here, they play together for bit before she goes down. This gives me two hours alone time with Isaac. It works for me and I am the Boss here!

We have a third time passed down bathtub and rubber ducky sesame street toy that has been getting tired. I took it apart in the morning to see if it needed batteries. Nope, there is a music box inside. So I put it back together with the 8 screws I took out. Isaac saw the toy sitting on the counter with the SCREWDRIVER sitting next to it. Busted Gramma. He knew I had been working on it and had to ask what I did. I told him and he said "Show Me Gramma". Lunch first before work, and he jammed through his lunch in record time. For the next two hours, seriously, he removed the screws one at a time as he chanted to himself "righty-tighty, lefty-loosy until Bingo!! The insides of the mechanism revealed. His eyes lit up and we went over all the inner workings, (a ton of parts) and I thought he would be satisfied. Nope, he wants to see what's inside the inside parts. He removed another 12 to 15 screws, one at a time as he talked about how each part worked with the others. Before doing this however, we agreed that if we were going to dissect this, we were not going to worry about putting it all back together right? "Right Gramma, we are just going to see what makes it work." Okkaaayyy. Every part that would come apart, came apart. Arms, legs, ducky, Bert or Ernie, I forget who it is. Everything apart.
He even took the strike plate off that makes the music when the little nubs on the barrel hit them. I was only the Helper, he did all the work. And I was amazed to watch his little hands go to town on this so delicately. He absolutely amazes me for a 3 1/2 year old. We ooohed and aaawed over each part, springs, screws and levers, and I thought "this is it, he is satisfied. We have done well." WRONG. He now wants to put it back together. I remind him of our previous agreement. He says it will be a "challenge". WHAT?? I told him I don't remember how we took it apart, oh well. He says he remembers!!! "I'll teach you Gramma." It is about 1/4th of the way done by the time Grandpa walks in the door. Grandpa checks it out as Isaac explains it to him and he just looks at me with that twinkle in his eye and says "that's my grandson." Grandpa goes in the bedroom and takes off his boots and collects his granddaughter who is now awake and comes back into the dining room. He is working long and hard hours right now, but makes sure to get home by 3:00 on Mondays and Wednesdays to see his kiddos. I love this man. He can have the worst day at work, but when he gets home and sees these kids, the day melts away.

He usually tells Isaac to pick up and put away all his stuff before mom picks him up. The look on Isaacs face when he told him he could leave all the parts on the counter until he is back on Wednesday to keep working on it, the look was sheer Priceless!! We took the kids out on the front lawn and just let them run around and enjoy the beautiful afternoon and warm fresh air. Amos the fat cat follows Hannah everywhere and she just loves him. He makes her follow him and hides from her under the bushes. Such a good wind-down for my brain that has been entrenched in springs, screws and parts for the past two hours. And I thank God as I sit outside and watch life, our life, in the moment. My heart is full. Mom pulls up at the driveway and is so happy to see the kids. Do they notice that she is here? Yes they do, and run the other way:) They do not want the fun to end. Grandpa and I promise them that we will pick up where we left off on Wednesday and Isaac is good with that. Hannah is not and whales while mom puts her in the car. Life is good. I hope mom enjoys knowing her kids are safe at Grammas while she works, half as much as I enjoy having them here and not in daycare. Corky works hard so I can be a stay at home gramma, just as he did when I was a stay at home mom. Not everyone has the priveledge of doing this, but I am so thankful that we do. We are growing old together day by day, for as long as the Lord has planned for us. I do not take this for granted and savor every moment. Life is good and so is God.

Love and Hugs, Laurie