On Fridays I sit with the granbeanie at my house. We had a good time today. She played with chalk, her doll house, the “lil guys” I made her out of clay, some unfired lil guys (which got decapitated and squished) and then we had a snack. She ate a large cookie, a yogurt, string cheese and ice cream! When her mom got here later she also ate a couple of chicken fingers! Then she climbed on the sofa next to me and threw herself on the throw pillows.

“Make me a nest on your bed, Granbean,” she said. 4 years ago

The service for my former mother-in-law, who died last month, is Saturday. I cannot tell you how much I abhor funeral services, much less for a mother figure this year. I don’t have to go as I get to use the excuse that my daughter wants to go and I have to keep the baby. This is a fiction. They weren’t close, but she’s doing it for me.
What a great kid! 5 years ago

My younger girl called me today minutes after successfully defending her masters thesis! A friend asked her if she was going to Italy to celebrate. (She mastered Italian while picking up her Masters in astronomy – just for fun.) I said I was sorry I couldn’t send her to Italy, that she’d earned such a trip. She stopped me and what she said actually made me cry. “Oh, Mom,” she said, “you got me this far. You’ll never know how much I appreciate all you did for me.” I finally pulled it together to tell her how proud I was of her and she then said, “That means more to me than any of the nice comments from my committee.”

Dang! At times like this I think I must have done something right along the way. 5 years ago

Someone loves chalk. 5 years ago

Very busy girl. 5 years ago

Just got her first career-type job! It was the one she wanted and does not require her to move. Yay! 5 years ago

This kid just cracks me up. Her mother and I arranged the cups of dye on the newspaper covered table and put the hard boiled eggs out for her. I began to explain what to do when she piped up, “Water Paint! I can do it!” She promptly grabbed an egg and said, “Plop!” as she threw it into one cup. Of course this progressed, predictably, to her little hands becoming well stained. As she held one wet egg tightly her thumb punctured the shell. She was so excited. She said, “Look Momma, it hatched!”

I love that kid. 5 years ago

The grandbeanie likes to stand on my sofa and eyeball the stuff on my sideboard. I had a bowl of M&Ms from Valentine’s Day there, pink, red, and white. Now she’s never had an M&M and on this sideboard she has seen in the past a bowl with those little glass pebbles, which fascinated her. I could see the wheels turning in her little head. She looked at me; she looked at her mother. Then she said, “I need to eat them!” 5 years ago

After lunch I gave her a cookie. She smiled and said to the cookie, “Welcome to my belly!”

She cracks me up. 5 years ago

It was near bedtime and she was tired. She had her pacifier in her mouth and said something to me I couldn’t understand. I asked her to repeat it and she did. I asked, “You want a yellow baboon?” You should have seen the look on her little face. She dissolved in giggles and took the pacifier out and said, “Granbean, no, not a yellow baboon! The bricks!” She indicated her cardboard blocks, some of which are yellow, and I knew then she wanted me to make “a little yellow room” with the blocks. But we were way past that. We giggled and giggled. I could hardly brush her teeth she just kept giggling and saying, over and over, “not a yellow baboon!” Then she said, “not a purple baboon!” and so on. The giggles are catching! 5 years ago

stayed with me the other night. At bathtime I asked her if she wanted to take a bath in my purple bathtub (yes, it is purple, at least violet; no, not by my design) and she walked up to it but was a little afraid to get in. Then yesterday she wanted “to visit Granbean’s purple bathtub.” I thought maybe she should see that I also have a white bathtub, so I took her in the other bathroom. It has a handheld shower which just tickled the child. I showed her how it works and she said, “It’s magic! It can clean!” Not my words. After a few minutes she asked to see “Granbean’s pink bathtub” I told her I only have white and purple, which she then turned into a game that lasted all morning where she would ask to see the pink tub, then answer herself that I only have white and purple and go running between the two bathrooms. 5 years ago

the granbeanie, not yet two, walked by the room that was my mother’s. She made a little scowly face, pointed at the open door and said, “Nana’s gone. Granbean’s sad.”

How right she is. 5 years ago

I turned my gas logs on the other day while the granbeanie was here. She took one look, clapped her hands, and said, “Birthday candles!” 5 years ago

My little granddaughter is at that age when she wants to know “what’s dat?” Well, she reached over to my sideboard from my sofa and pointed to my candle snuffer and asked, “What’s dat?” My daughter said, “It’s a candle snuffer.” Her little hand grasped the handle of the item, a big, bad grin spread over her face, her eyes twinkled and she declared, “A candle hammer!” 5 years ago

with my granddaughter. Her mother dropped her off and she waved and said bye! First we played outside. We did all the stepping stones in my garden and we played with the dog next door. Then we did some coloring and had a snack. Then Clara said she wanted to paint. So I found a brush and some paint and she said, “Clara is learning to paint!” Of course we had to play with some clay. We made snakes and pots and little men. And then we had a big lunch with O-cream after! Then we were very tired so Clara grabbed a bunny and a photo album (her parent’s wedding) and we looked at the pictures and named everyone in it until her Mommy showed up. It was just what I needed. 5 years ago

are the best. They each have rich, full lives of their own but take time out for me. My younger daughter took time she really didn’t have to come home during my mother’s last week. It was expensive for her and I know she did it for me. My older girl has called me or come by every day. With kids like these how can I complain about anything? 5 years ago

I stopped by my daughter’s house on my way home from school. The baby was playing outside. When I got out of my car she ran to me yelling, “Granbean! Granbean! Granbean!” She took my hand and gave me a hug. I loved that. 5 years ago

My granddaughter is 19 months old now and changing all the time. Day before yesterday she came here and I gave her two pink cookies before she left with her mom. The wafer kind that are like sticks, not round. She clenched one in each hand. Didn’t eat them, just held them. Mom had to pry them out of her little hands to put her down for her nap. So…yesterday I go there to babysit a little at lunchtime. Mom tells me she can have the pink cookies after lunch. So after lunch I give her one. Her eyes get really big, her little hand claspes it with a death grip and she says, “Pink cookie!” Then the eyes cloud over and she says, “Moma, no, no pink cookie.” This goes on and on until I finally says, “oh, for heaven’s sakes, just take a bite!” She takes a bites and says, “Ah! Pink Cookie” It was gone in about 10 seconds, along with all the mental angst.

Lesson: When faced with a dilemma, just take a bite! 5 years ago

My elder daughter was here today for brunch with her sister before she heads back to Arizona. We had a nice visit. When the baby needed changing I took her and my daughter to my room. The baby cuddled with her mommy and my daughter looked at me and asked, “Will I remember this?” I assured her she would, just as I remembered. 5 years ago

is such a good mom. Her little girl, 14-months, doesn’t have a blankie, she uses Mom’s hair instead. My daughter has let her hair grow just to indulge her but she frequently puts it up in a clip or scrunchy. When the baby realizes this she snatches the clip out of her mom’s hair and when it comes tumbling down, she sighs audibly, reaches out both hands and buries them and sometimes her face in the hair and says, “Ah, Mama!” It is so precious! 6 years ago

Sometimes I think life sucks. My potters’ wheel is broken, I need a new kiln, my savings are running low, my hips hurt and I have a real jerk of a neighbor. But… I just got a note from my younger daughter. She said, “Thanks for being you. I always feel so lucky when I hear my friends talk about how their parents drive them crazy when they’re home. Not me – I love hanging out with you!

Life is good. 6 years ago

She had an algebra assignment. She was to do some equations and present them visually. Well, my little egghead decided to needlepoint her project! I explained to her how long needlepointing takes, but she was confident. Unfortunately, she was also something of a last-minute-wonder. The night before the project was due she started it. She had pages to needlepoint. I knew she would never finish by morning but I told her she could stay up all night working on it but she’d still have to go to school in the morning. She got no sleep and midway through the night she saw the folly of her idea. She wound up with a page needlepointed and the rest with the yarn cut and glued in place. Amazingly, she got an A.

She’s in grad school now and we often laugh about this. In our family we always say, “Are you sure you’re not needlepointing your algebra project?” when we mean to ask if someone is making something harder than it needs to be.

Kids, you gotta love ‘em! 6 years ago

When my youngest, (now 27) was little, maybe 2 or 3, she would sing Christmas songs as she thought they should be. One went something like this: “Tenta Claus is coming tonight. He’s making a list, chicken and rice…”

Tonight, Christmas Eve, that same daughter is making marinated chicken breasts with Champagne risotto, or, “chicken and rice!” :-) 6 years ago

My younger daughter just passed her orals! This is the same kid who disassembled, unscrewed or ate everything in sight by the time she was 3. Yay! She’s in a demanding program and doing so well and I am so proud of her. What a great young woman she has grown to be. Must be all that pumice hand cleaner she ate! 6 years ago

It was a tough time in my life. I was post-divorce, living in a little two-bedroom apartment with my two daughters. I was working two jobs and stumbled in around 10:30 one night to an incredible scene: It looked for all the world like someone’s brains were splattered on the wall. I was alarmed but confused to see my girls washing up furiously, stifling laughter. They couldn’t hold it in when they saw my face. When I took in the whole scene I swore there was blood and guts everywhere – the sofa was pulled away from the wall and there were splatters everywhere. Finally I wound up on the floor laughing and trying to get the story out of my two hoodilums.

Apparently what had happened is that #2 daughter heated up some ravioli in the microwave (never do this) and in carrying the bowl to the living room (where she wasn’t supposed to eat) she dropped her fork. In an effort not to allow it to hit the floor she juggled the bowl, overturning it and the over-heated raviolis burst and spread everywhere. It was amazing. I was finding ravioli in the couch cushions, behind photos, everywhere for weeks. Now this is family legend. 6 years ago

Katie didn’t sleep through the night until she was about 18 months old. I used to get up when she’d cry and walk back and forth with her, singing. I knew I didn’t have a great voice because in school the teachers always used to say, “Everyone sing louder, except R, make mouth-pictures!” Still, it came as something of a shock to me when little Katie, sleepy and sweet, lifted her head from my shoulder as I paced with her. She uttered her first complete sentence: “Please, Mommy, don’t sing!” I stopped singing and she started sleeping through the night. 6 years ago

I was still measuring Nix’s age in months when I discovered she was a budding mechanic. Because of her extraordinary ability to climb out of, over, or under damn near anything, I created a “safe room” for her instead of a playpen. I would put her in it with only her toys. I had a desk and chair in there but the drawers all had baby-safe latches so I didn’t see a problem. One day I put her in there briefly when I was cooking and when I checked on her I found her happily disassembling my desk chair. She had it in pieces! I don’t know how. It couldn’t have been easy, but there it was.

I called her hoodini because she could get into or out of anything. Once she managed – I kid you not – to get out of her carseat (!) and open the car door while I was driving!! What saved her (and my sanity) was a baby leash I kept on her at all times. I had tied it to the safety belt.

Another day I heard her crying in the bathroom. I went in there and she was crying in frustration because she couldn’t lift my husband’s pipe wrench.

She was supposed to wear a leg brace as a baby but I couldn’t keep her in it. The doctor suggested taping the laces so she couldn’t untie them. I did. She unscrewed the bottom from one shoe and gave herself a concussion! I returned the brace.

To all you new mothers out there, those struggling with little ones who seem to need you every moment, I understand. But take heart. My little hoodini, mechanic, eat-everything nut turned out to be an extremely bright scientist. Today she travels the world, lectures, and watches the stars. 6 years ago

Nix developed strange appetites as she grew. Among the stuff she put in her mouth: stove ashes, dish soap, sand, pumice hand cleaner, asprin, mouthwash, magazine pages, and more. When her older sister proudly brought home a Christmas piece she made at school I could not leave it out because it had holly berries on it. I knew Nix would eat it when my back was turned. So I put it on a high shelf and wouldn’t you know it? By January it had dried out so much the berries fell to the floor and the Nixster found ‘em.

I went through 2 bottles of Ipecac with that child. I was on a first name basis with the poison control center. After one incident, I woke the following day with a pounding headache. I had a bottle of asprin in my hand, struggling to open the childproof bottle. The phone rang. I put the unopened bottle on the top of my bedroom highboy chest and answered the phone – not 15 feet away. It was the poison control center checking to make sure the kid was ok. In the minute or so I was on the phone with them my 18-month old had pulled the drawers out in step fashion, climbed to the top of the chest, opened the asprin bottle and when I went in she was sitting on top popping them like candy! “Mmmm, tasty,” she said. Needless to say I had to call the poison control center right back and tell them that their call had led to yet another event. I’m lucky child protective services didn’t get on me. I swear, I was a stay-at-home mom and the only times Nix was out of my sight was for moments at a time. Still, I was convinced one of us wouldn’t make it to her 3rd birthday.

The problem resolved itself when her verbal skills were sufficient to process the following: “Not everything is food. You have to ask mommy if it’s ok to eat.” There ensued an interesting 3 months or so when no matter what was presented to her, or where, she would run to me and ask, “Is this food, Mommy?” On playdates it was especially embarrassing. My friends would inform me that Nix wouldn’t eat the PB&J sandwiches she served because she wasn’t sure they were food. Imagine explaining that!6 years ago

After the Nixter learned her little crib trick I had to put her in a regular bed. She, of course could easily get out of it. I tried putting a child’s gate on the door but she’d just climb over it. I was afraid she’d hurt herself so I took it down. For weeks I would wake up in the middle of the night to find lots of lights on. I could never catch her at it however. One morning I told her I knew she was getting up and turning the lights on. She’d just shake her head. Finally she confided, “Somebody is afraid of the dark.”

I wrote a little story for her about the episodes and she loved it, correcting it for accuracy like a little editor. And she started sleeping through the night without all the mystery lightness! 6 years ago

My second child, a daughter, was an amazing – if exhausting – baby. At 9 months she observed how I pressed a pedal and the side of the crib slid down. One day I went to get her after her nap. The side of her crib was down and she was gone! Not only had she let herself out of the crib, but somehow managed to open the heavy wood door that led from her room to the attic steps. I found her in the attic eating the pink fiberglass insulation. Little did I realize that this amazing baby was only beginning to torture me!

More later… 6 years ago