Saturday with Owen and Jaxon, Part 2

Lunch time...
Feeding the grandkids used to be a challenge for me. I usually avoid wheat, (except when we make sour dough bread) dairy, and packaged foods. I have found I feel a lot better when I keep my diet more “natural”. I used to try to feed the kids “My Way” but that resulted in hungry kids. And a hungry kid is often a cranky kid. Not a good thing to associate a visit to Grandma’s with. So I have made a few compromises. I buy chicken nuggets, softer bread, white tortillas, and even some sweets {horrors!} but I draw the line at Kraft Mac and Cheese and Trix. Lunch on Saturday was chicken nuggets, sliced apples, and almond milk [they even drink that at home]. As I carried his lunch to the living room, Jax looked up at me and began to cry, “Mommy...Mommy....”
I kneeled next to him, wrapping my free arm around his shoulder. “Remember, Mommy’s bye-bye. She’ll be back for you at ni-night time.”
Sniffle, sniffle...
“Do you want to eat first or take a nap first?”
Instead of answering with a word, he wiggled out of my loose hug and walked to meet Owen on the blanket.
We watched Despicable Me while the boys had a carpet picnic. Jax ate slowly, sometimes sliding the catsup-dipped nugget into his mouth by way of his cheek. After a full morning this little fellow was tired. After lunch, and a swipe across his face with a damp cloth, he snuggled next to me on the sofa and within minutes was fast asleep. He stayed that way for three hours!

While Jaxon napped, it was time for Owen and Grandma Time. Like all good employees, he deserved a break from his labors. Owen chose to play WiiFit. {I really need to find a few more Wii games suitable for the younger set.} Owen’s favorites are the balance games. He particularly likes the Tilt City game and delights in dropping the balls into the wrong cups! [If you want to hear a most infectious laugh, team up with him on that one!] He also likes the Obstacle Course and Bird’s-eye Bull’s-eye, where you flap your arms to make your Mii fly over an ocean with scattered targets to land on.

Jax woke from his nap, surprisingly pleasant {not asking for Mom as I expected}, and hungry again. Snack time was smoothie time! A great snack for the kids to help make. I pulled out the frozen fruits {buy bunches of ripe bananas, peel, cut into chunks, lay out in a single layer in a Ziploc & pop into the freezer} and started filling the blender canister. In went strawberries, blueberries and bananas. Then I covered it all with orange juice. “Well, I think I don’t want a smoothie” from Owen. I learned he didn’t like the bananas and orange juice in his smoothies. We poured off the oj, dug out the bananas, and poured in some “soy-o milk”. That’s how Owen likes his smoothies so that’s how Jax wanted his, too. Yummy!

More playing outdoors, dinner, a change into jammies, and another movie {Tangled, Jax’s current favorite} and it was time for the boys to go home. When Jax saw his mom, you could see his body relax with a “Grandma was right!” and a {BIG} SMILE!

Yep, I’d do it again, with or without Owen’s help....but I’d rather do it with!

Saturday with Owen & Jaxon Part 1

On Saturday Amy and her family went to Hollywood to see the new Pirates movie. It would have been an exhausting day for Jax so we planned for him to spend the day at Grandma Debbie’s. Having a toddler here by himself all day was a daunting idea. I can only be interesting for so long to someone so short. My grandma’s words rang in my ears “Kids always do better in even numbers.”

I invited Owen to spend the day here to “Babysit” Jax with me. By the time Amy returned, I knew that I could not have done this as easily without Owen. Owen took his job very seriously. He played with Jax and guided him from room to room or to the patio where they played some more. When Jax tried to pick a tomato, Owen gently told him no.
We had a mighty full day, beginning with sweeping the patio...a never ending job because of the pepper trees surrounding our yard. I’ve always felt that when the grandkids come over its fine for them to help around the Haasienda with some of the maintenance. Most of the time they enjoy the helping as much as the playing!

Next, we painted. Owen is quite an artist and I think the pre printed pictures in the water color painting book held him back a little. When he starts on a plain piece of paper magical things happen....ducks in ponds, rainbows, and pleasure in his work.

After the boys and I cleaned up their paintings and set them to dry in the sun (Owen’s idea)we headed to the front hallway.
My house was built in 1953 {we’re the same age!} and has a few really cool features not found in modern homes. Instead of a linen closet in the front hall we have a built in bureau chest of drawers. Since there have always been kids in the house, one drawer has always been dedicated to kids’ games. Now that there aren’t as many of us living here {only four, compared to a high of ten} we don’t need as many sheets and blankets. That freed up a drawer so I {again} copied my own grandma and dedicated one to toys.

Owen and Jax found several balls to take outside for more play time, till lunch was ready.

To Be Continued

Hanging with Zeke

Monday evening Marisa brought Zeke over to hang out while she lined up the Ketchum family near our yard and shot them. Don’t cringe. The Ketchums are my daughter Amy and her family ~ husband Jeremy, daughters Kirstie and Kyle, and sons Josh and Jaxon ~ so it’s perfectly fine for Marisa to shoot them.

Did I mention that Marisa is a professional photographer? So is Amy, but she can’t shoot her own family very easily, so she asked Marisa to do the honors. {Gotta say....another of my daughters, Annette, is also a professional photographer but she’s in Irvine so Amy didn’t ask her.}

Back to Zeke... He’s almost one now and starting to toddle. He’s also honing many other big boy skills like feeding himself with a spoon, waving Bye-Bye, and throwing.

His dad, my son Nick, was an excellent thrower. By the time he was three we thought he would somehow find a way to turn it into a money-making occupation before he was old enough for a worker’s permit. At least twice a day I had to tell him, “Man, if you have to throw something please go down to the corral and throw rocks!” {There weren’t any horses in the corral so it was quite safe.} Nick finally out grew his pre-occupation with throwing when he was five and started a new habit....walking on his hands, but I’ll save that for another time.

Back to Zeke....again.... It was just past dinnertime and nearing bedtime when he arrived so he wasn’t quite his usual chipper self. I dug around the toy drawer and found some balls for him to play with. Maddie was here and joined Zeke on the floor to play “catch”. At 11 months old, Zeke’s got a great aim! He can throw a ball right to you more than half the time.

Play time lasted more than half an hour before he realized, with a heartbreakingly cute lower lip pout, that Mom wasn’t here. His last 10 minutes were spent in Grandma’s lap with occasional lusty wails. But as soon as Mom walked it he was happy again.

Even when they’re crying, I’m happy to spend time with these treasures the Lord has added to my life!

Sunday Dinner

Sundays are Family Dinner day. For us, that can mean as many as 30 people or as few as two, on those rare occasions that it’s just me and Dave for a cozy dinner. That only happens about once a year.

We gather here at the Haasienda, at Nick and Marisa’s house, or at Amy and Jeremy’s. Sometimes Nick dons his Jocko’s apron and grills {his chicken is out of this world!}, or Jeremy will cook up a mixed grill, and sometimes the women cook. Every so often we order take out. But we are all together as often as possible.

{Let me get this out of the way ~ Dave and I are happily married and share the Haasienda, but for some reason the kids have always called this “Mom’s house” so that’s what we call it too. I think they’ll be calling it Mom’s house long after I die.}

Tonight all the locals came to my place. That’s just over half the family. Even Maddie showed up! She’s Jae’s True Friend and one of our honorary daughters. There was plenty of horsing around and lots of noise! I even got to see Zeke take a few tentative steps. It won’t be long till he’s running outside with the others!

Left to right ~ Zeke, Kyle, Josh, Owen, Ethan, Kirstie, Jax

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Ethan and Maddie being goofy

For dinner I made Girl Scout Tacos. I can hear you thinking, “What in the world are Girl Scout Tacos?” Well, I’m glad you asked!

Brown a pound of ground beef with some taco seasoning. When the meat is cooked all the way, throw in two or three cans of refried beans and mix it up really well until it’s nice and hot. Put a few scoops of this on top of some tortilla chips you’ve spread out on a plate and top with your favorite taco fillings ~ cheese, tomato, onion, lettuce, avocado or guacamole, maybe some salsa and sour cream. I more than doubled this tonight.

For dessert, Amy made Monkey Bread. If you want the recipe let me know and I’ll ask her. It's a gooey confection that is definitely not in the health food realm. Heck, it’s not even on the same planet as health food! But everyone seems to like it....

Gardening with Jax

Jax came over this morning to hang out with me and Papa while his mom and Aunt Marisa met for coffee....ALONE! They don’t get an opportunity like that very often.

Jax loves anything that grows from the ground. Today we planted some herb and veggie seedlings I bought yesterday. We put some into pots and few into the raised bed garden. I am not much of a gardener. I hoped that it was in my genes because my grandpa was a farmer in Missouri before moving to LA in the Dirty Thirties (AKA the dust bowl). On his double city lot on Century Blvd he raised flowers, fruits, and veggies and even kept rabbits. {I found out the hard way at dinner one night when I was three what the rabbits were really for.}

Unlike my grandpa’s green thumb, mine is brown but I am ever optimistic that something will grow! I am hoping that my grandkids will be able to see where some of their food comes from as our plants grow. But even if my garden fails {again} at least we have had some fun outside playing in the dirt!