Six Word Saturday

I love Saturdays! It's time to play Six Word Saturday again! You know...where I get to describe my life...or something...in just six words! SWS is the brain child of Cate at http://www.showmyface.com/ If you want to have some fun, hop on over and give it a try!

Now for my six words for this week:

Electric hand dryers make me depressed:(

You know, those new super powerful hand dryers that they have in the ladies' room these days...the ones that almost blow the skin off of your hands...when I put my hands under them and turn those suckers on, I am painfully aware of how loose and old the skin on my hands is becoming...What ever happened to that young-looking, skin that used to be on my hands? Oh, I know! It's on my daughter's hands! My hands now look painfully similar to the way my mother's hands looked--when she was in the nursing home....Good day friends...Kathy

The Twins...My First "Grandchildren" and Friday"s Giveaway

This weekend's giveaway prize is your choice of either one of these activity packs. It is a card board backpack filled with crayons, coloring sheets, stickers, and more. Just right for those cold or rainy days inside. All that you have to do to have a chance to win is tell me one thing that you learned from reading the post below. If your answer is different from anybody elses you will get two entries--so don't copy the previous comment! Good luck everyone, and thanks for stopping by...

When I quit my job as a paraprofessional at the elementary school, I decided to become a nanny. My daughter, Brandy, had a friend named Michelle, who had given birth to twin girls in May. I quit working at school in October. Brandy's friend was looking for a replacement nanny to begin in January, but when I became available, she went ahead and hired me early. I began my first experience at being a doting, spoiling MiMi.

The twins were just 5 months old when I began keeping them at their house. The picture above was taken just a few days after I began keeping them. I'd already began spoiling them...I gave them the rabbits that they have with them in the chair, and took the picture. In fact, I took tons of pictures of them over the months.

Their names were Jayla(left)and Mackenzie(right) and their personalities were as different as their looks. Jayla was a "content" baby, while Mackenzie was a demanding one. I learned a lot while being a nanny for those girls! I "tip my hat" to the parents of multiples. It's another whole ballgame! You learn to multi task very fast--something I am not very good at.

I loved the twins so much, that my husband Ed and I sometimes kept them on Saturday nights so the parents could have a night out. The girls couldn't say Ed, so they called my husband "E". That name stuck. Madison calls him "E", too. Jayla began calling me "MiMi" as soon as she could talk. That's how I came to be "MiMi".

I kept the twins until shortly after their second birthday on May 6th. By then, Madison had been born and was already 9 months old. I was feeling "torn" and also had a case of "burn out". I made the tough decision to retire and come home. I hated to do it, but I wanted more free time to see Madison, and my husband and I were also in the middle of building our new house--a "do it yourself" project.

So tearfully, I left my very first "grandchildren" whom I had spent the past 2 years nurturing and watching grow up. I left them in the care of their two aunts and their paternal grandmother. I rarely see them now, they are in school. Sadly, I am not sure that they even remember who I am. They will always hold a special place in my heart though, and I hope that someday they will realize that.

Don't forget to leave a comment telling something that you learned from reading this post!

Click here to see the entire Giveaway Blog Hop List....

Caden Loves Anyhing With Wheels...

Caden has all but stopped playing with his "baby toys" at my house. I've put away most all of the rattles and squeeze toys. It's sort of sad, but inevitable that babies grow up too quickly--especially these days!

Cade's newest love is anything with wheels. I found some Little People vehicles and he enjoys playing with those. They are large and chunky for his hands, but they make noise and have moving parts, too. At first he would just sit and play with them by opening and closing the moving parts, but now he's learned how to roll them across the floor-making the motor sounds as he rolls them! That's our "little man"! I can remember that his daddy loved to do the same thing when he was about Caden's size.

He also loves a ball! He can say "ball "now, and says it every time that he sees one. He will slap the ball across the room and then crawl after it. It's funny that he seems to enjoy playing ball by himself. Cade enjoys balls of all sizes, too. The other night my husband was rolling tennis sized balls in the hall and Cade was chuckling the entire time.

Cade's also learning to play with larger ride-on toys, too, but I will save that for another post. Oh, my...where is our "Baby Cade" going? On to bigger and better things, that's where! Thanks for stopping by...have a great day!

Children Find Pleasure in the Strangest Things...

Can you look at Cade and see the joy on his little face? I only wish you could hear the chuckles coming from his mouth! He has the sweetest little chuckle. Can you see those little teeth on the bottom? He also has two new ones on the top!

After our mummy decorating contest Saturday night, we piled the toilet paper in the middle of the floor. Brad and his girlfriend began piling the paper on top of Madison and Cade. Cade immediately began to chuckle. I've never heard him laugh so much! This little game went on for several minutes before I grabbed my camera and snapped a couple of pictures.

This brings me to the point that sometimes a child would rather play with the box than the toy that comes inside of it! We all think that children must have the latest and greatest toys, when the truth is they can find joy in the simplest things, too. Have you given your child a roll of toilet paper lately?

Thanks for stopping by, and have a good day!

Tuesday's Blog Hop--Favorite Photos

The theme of today's blog hop is "Favorie Photos", and I sure am glad! I have some brand new photographs of my grandchildren wearing their trick-or-treat costumes and I am just dying to share them with someone....

This is 10 and 1/2 month old Caden wearing his monkey suit. His mama just loves monkeys! We all had a good laugh when we saw him in his little monkey suit! Wouldn't you just love to know what he's thinking?

This is 3 year old Madison dressed up in a fairy costume for our costume party. She was trying on her Uncle Brad's disguise when I took this photograph.

This picture was made on trick-or-treat night. Madison dressed as Princess Belle for that occasion. She was intrigued by Cade wearing the monkey suit, and kept patting him on the head!

Those are my favorite photos for this time. I hope that you enjoyed sharing them with me. Thanks for hopping by...

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Not Me Monday!

Happy Monday everyone! I do not feel like I have been run over by an eighteen wheeler...I have just survived a very busy week! I will share some of what has not been going on around here...I am dying to post pictures, too, but will restrain myself since tomorrow's blog hop theme is photos...I'll just have to wait one more day!

On Wednesday I did not babysit Cade for a couple of hours, then bake black cat cookies for the family fun night at church...We did not arrive at church a little before 5:30 for the hayride that was supposed to leave at 5:45. The hayride was not jam packed with 38 people in a small trailer, the mule(vehicle not animal) that pulled the wagon was then loaded with 8 more people, and a cooler of ice! While the over-loaded trailer sat for 30 minutes waiting for the last load of "late-comers" the children did not get rowdy and begin to throw hay! A couple of the rowdiest did not get down in the small foot space and begin to wrestle! Can you say..."where's the paddle?" Yes, I do believe in spanking...and I do believe that a lot of other people should start believing!

Thursday evening was not trick-or-treat night in our town. A group of leaders decided that our town should always trick-or-treat on Tuesday or Thursday evenings, which I think is absurd! My two favorite trick-or-treaters did not arrive back at our house until almost 9 o'clock that evening...they were both not wound up! Madison, who is the only small child on her daddy's side of the family, did not come in with four buckets of various goodies and gifts! Someone needs to hurry and have another child..Madison is on overload...

Madison was not intrigued by Cade dressed as a monkey! She did not follow him all around and keep petting his head...I think she may have been fooled by his outfit! Cade was just happy to get his suit off and get to MiMi's toys...

Friday, I was not hard at work in the kitchen--after I shopped for the necessary groceries! I was not in the kitchen until very late that evening, baking goodies and making punch for the party the next evening.

Saturday was not a busy day, too, the house had to be straightened (thank goodness for a helpful husband), sandwiches and chili had to be made, hot dogs grilled, last minute party decorations put up. Before we knew it, the guests were arriving. You can read about our family costume party on my other blog http://www.edshunnybunny.wordpress.com/ It also has some pictures of our guests in costume.

Sunday I was not dead tired! Apparently I'd exhausted my supply of energy for the week. Thank goodness the time changed during the night because I slept until after 10 o'clock--old time. I later took a two and a half hour nap, also.

This week is not starting out one bit slower! I am off to the city at noon for a consultation with a surgeon about my "spotty" mammogram. Can I just say that October is a horrible month to have a "spotty" mammogram...there are pink ribbons everywhere!!! There is no way a person can ignore breast cancer awareness in October.

A quick note! I almost forgot to announce the winner of my weekend giveaway! The winner of the Backyardigans book is "Country Mom"! Congratulations to you! I used random.org to choose the winning number, and it chose #1 the first time. Nobody had 1, but "Country Mom" was the closest with the #3. She did go over, but you can't go under the #1! I did make it chose a second number, but the second choice was #2. "Country Mom" is still the winner! I will get your prize in the mail today!

That was my week, how about yours? Thanks so much for stopping by, and do have a great Monday!