Saturday, January 10, 2015

Sweet and Silly

I know I said I was done with Christmas photos but I found some more.

I have five great nieces and nephews. Because I don't travel back to Iowa much, they had to get bigger before they recognized me and wouldn't flinch or run away when I was around. You can see the oldest in a post below about the giant box stack.

Makayla is in 2nd grade. She pulled a Dr. Seuss book out of my mom's stash and came to sit next to me on the sofa.


This was "Hop on Pop". Reading is the best gift you can give a child. So much is unlocked when one can read. She read the whole book to me, stumbling over 3 words. It wasn't that she didn't know the word, she was looking ahead and misread what the words were. I'm so thrilled with her reading ability.

Seeing his sister read to me, Kalub, who is 3, decided he had to "read" to me, as well.


This is a Thomas the Tank Engine book with a side bar of buttons which make sounds relative to places in the book. Kalub might know a few words, but he's had this book read to him so much, he has a working knowledge of what it says. He told me the story, explained what was going on in each photo, and showed me which buttons you're supposed to push at which point in the story. It was delightful.

I remembered reading to Carole and then having her read to me as she grew older. Books have always been a part of our household and it's wonderful to see that my niece is encouraging reading in her children.

You know what it's like when there is a new baby in the family. Everyone wants to hold the baby. The poor child gets passed around and really over stimulated to the point that a melt-down is inevitable. On the other hand, you have children, like Lyllie here, who fight sleep. She wants to see what's going on. It's like she thinks she'll miss something.

She was handed to me and I just hung onto her for awhile. She got fussy and I gave her a bottle. Then, she started to nod off. Man, she fought it, but, eventually, sleep overcame her.

It's been 30 years since I had a child fall asleep on me. I remember the trepidation of trying to get up because your arm is falling asleep and you don't want to wake the child. Because I was comfortable, I just put up my feet and we let her sleep. I think she napped for about 20 minutes. It was enough to keep her awake until my niece and family headed home. She was asleep again within 5 minutes of leaving the house. I liked going places with Carole at this age because they are portable. You do have to watch schedules but you can just pick them up and go.


Rawr! Carpet monsters! Makayla, Kalub and Wyatt. My niece made these blankets for her kids out of very soft fleece. The kids were ecstatic. I told Wyatt I wanted to take a photo of him as a monster in his blanket. He understood exactly what I wanted so he got down on the floor and pulled the blanket over his head. Seeing this, Makayla and Kalub had to be in the photo, too. They could not stop giggling at the very idea of being carpet monsters.

It is said that Christmas is for kids. It's really for all of us. We just have to remember what it's like to be carpet monsters and enjoy the moment.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

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