After picking up lunch at Subway, we headed to the Marx home. Miss Bailey has been sick the last few days and very clingy with her mom. She did not know we were coming. Claude got in the house first and stood in the kitchen until Bailey looked up and saw him. I entered shortly after Claude and Bailey was visibly happy to see her grandparents in her home. She detached from her mommy (who was very happy for the break) and allowed Claude and I to entertain her until quiet time.
I was privileged to read her stories and get the munchkin into her bedroom for quiet time. This allowed Andie to head to the bus stop to get Hayden.
I managed to get Bailey down and my shoes on and out the door as the bus was coming down the road to the end of the Marx street. Hayden got off the bus and was walking home with Andie and their next door neighbor. I walked almost all the way up to him before he looked up and saw me standing there. He also did not know we were coming. I got one of those running, jump in your arms, hugs that I just love soooo much. I loved it when my kids did it and as each of the grandmonsters has done that. It is just the best hug.
Hayden is a fount of words when you first see him. He is just bursting with things to tell you. He hurried into the house and found Claude sitting in the big chair. He took his backpack off and put it in Claude's lap. Then he said, "Would you like to be the first one to go through my backpack?" How could a grampa pass on that kind of offer?
Andie and I had not eaten our sandwiches from Subway. Hayden usually comes home and finished his lunch from school for his afternoon snack. I added a piece of my sandwich and a few of my chips. He entertained Andie and me with all those words and updates about school while we ate lunch. Then I headed upstairs with him to watch a science show before quiet time.
After quiet time the games began.
Bailey determined that Claude needed to be covered with all the things she could get her hands on, pillows, notebooks, jackets, afghan, etc. I loved this little pose she made when she finished with her creation using Pa as the base.
Hayden proved to me one more time he is his mother's child. Andie has a habit of dipping cookies in milk every evening. Actually, my father has always loved cookies in milk. When Claude and I were at Papa's apartment the other day around lunch time, Papa had a bowl with cookies soaking in milk to have for his dessert after he ate his lunch. Genetically, Hayden comes by this honestly. He took his cookie and asked for milk. I thought he was going to drink the milk but he wanted to dip the cookie first. Once that cookie was done, Hayden downed the rest of the milk.
Andie and Michael left for their date. We settled in to watch Cinderella II with the Mini's. Hayden is a kick to watch a movie with. He laughs so hard at the parts he thinks are funny. He is bouncing all around and totally into the humor.
Bailey took a break during the movie and came to check out my sudoku book. I always give her the book to write in. She found a sudoku puzzle that was not done and made the letter "B" in a blank square. That made her very happy. Happy enough that she looked for another page with a puzzle not done. Then she made and "A" in a blank square on that page.
After the movie we headed upstairs to get the kids to bed. Bailey has her horse at the foot of her bed in her room. She got this horse for her birthday. See my blog entry dated February 7th for pictures of this 'large' horse. I'm guessing that since Bailey was sick she felt the horse needed to be cared for as well. At any rate, Bailey's horse had Hayden's blanket I made from ties covering it. Hayden noticed this and was sure he needed his tie blanket quilt and the horse did not need it. I asked Hayden to help me find another blanket. We looked at bit and then I determined to use the pashmina I've been carrying in my purse for the horse blanket. Bailey was extremely happy with the pashmina being placed on her horse and Hayden was extremely happy to have his tie blanket on his bed. Now we could get on with the 'getting-ready-for-bed' routine.
I read Bailey her book, made sure she had Wah-Wah and had her turn on her music to sleep with. Then she decided she needed the pashmina to sleep in and the horse could have the other blankets on her bed. We negotiated toput just one of her blankets on the horse, the pashmina over Bailey with a blanket on top of that. We finally had the light off in her room when she realized she wanted to be sure she knew where her book was. I didn't turn the light on but showed her the book and told her it would be on her night table when she got up in the morning. Her quick little mind determined she needed her purple flashlight to read her book in the dark. Hmmmm...I told her I would look for that but I had to get Hayden to bed first. I left her in a dark room covered up in bed with the hopes this little darlin' would fall asleep. Silly Ma!!!
Hayden and I read the Magic School Bus book, covered him up and I headed downstairs to turn on the monitor. Bailey was playing cheerfully in the dark in her room waiting for Ma to come back with the flashlight. Hmmmm again...I made the decision to let her stay that way just in case she fell asleep.
Andie and Michael got home, Bailey was still playing, Hayden was asleep. The adults watched a smidgen of television and somewhere during that time our Bailey fell asleep.
This morning Hayden awoke at his usual early hour for school days. I could hear him playing. When we spend the night, he will knock on the wall when he is ready for us to wake up and play. When I head his little knock on the wall between our rooms, I quietly got up and went to his bedroom door and knocked. He said, "Okay!" We had our good morning hugs and then determined he wanted to play 'Mouse Trap' so we tip-toed downstairs to play a game while the rest of the house slept.
Soon the rest of the family began to trickle downstairs. First Claude, then Bailey, then Andie. Hayden requested pancakes for breakfast. Andie started making pancakes and Hayden and Bailey finished up the Mouse Trap game. Then coerced Claude into playing horsey with them.
This is a fairly roudy game which ended in the horse dumping the kids on the sofa and loveseat and then some wrestling. To quiet things down a bit we moved to playing with the Leapsters for a bit. Once again, Hayden had Claude play with him.
Michael did some grocery shopping while Andie made cupcakes for an outing she was going to this evening. Andie made Hayden some salt dough and he shaped planets while we started lunch. Andie will bake these and Hayden will paint them.
We ended our morning with more games. Hayden and Claude honed their Star Wars light saber antics some more. In this picture Claude is actually flipping his light saber. Hayden is practicing his quick turns to make his next move.
While they were playing this game, Hayden got the hiccups. Quick witted Andie said, "It appears there is a 'hiccup' in the Force!"
Hayden showed us his George Washington/Abraham Lincoln poem with the hand motions.
Claude and I had a great time with this Marx family. We left just before time for the Mini's to head to quiet time. Thanks Marx family for a fun 24 hours.
Thank you for the date night!
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