Six Word Saturday

My six words for today are: Missing spending time with them lately...

I haven't had much time to devote to these precious little grandchildren of mine during the past

two weeks or so, due to my mother-in-law's recent decline in health.

Most of my time and energy has been going toward getting her moved and settled into a

personal care home. I am hoping that next week will bring about some free time and extra

energy. I am looking forward to "getting caught up" with Maddie and Cade.

Thanks to Cate @ http://www.showmyface.com/ for hosting SWS.

Maddie Grows A Pumpkin...Or Two

In late spring of this year, a pretty little vine began to sprout beside Maddie's front doorstep. It

seems that some of the seeds from her Halloween Pumpkin had planted themselves in the dirt,

then lay dormant all winter.

With much curiosity and wonder, Maddie and her family watched as the little vine began to grow

longer and longer. It seemed as if it would go on forever...but nobody disturbed it!

In a while, some pretty little orange blossoms came on the very long vine, followed by some tiny green

pumpkins. Maddie watched as the tiny green pumpkins began to grow larger. Maddie watched

as her pumpkins grew bigger, but not too big...


When all was said and done, Maddie ended up with three of these precious little pumpkins that

were picked off her vine! What a nice surprise! Instead of Halloween Pumpkins, this year

Maddie had some Fourth of July Pumpkins! Who knows, this may begin a new tradition at her

house...

Maddie, Then and Now...August 10

Every now and then, when news is slow, I like to scroll back through my old photographs and

marvel at how far my grand babies have come. Today is one of those days...

This photograph was taken of Madison three years ago, in August. She is wearing what was to

become one of my favorite outfits--a little pink sailor dress, a gift from a friend. Those little

pink glitter shoes were a gift from me. I love glitter shoes :) and all things girly. Looking at that

nearly bald head, who would have ever thought she'd end up with so much hair?

This is Madison today--or a few days ago...Still smilin' and cheesin' it up for MiMi's

camera! Madison has to be in a good mood to have her picture made these days. Lucky for

MiMi, I caught her on a "happy day"! She is wearing her new "silly band" bracelets, that have

become so popular. She is also holding MiMi's Evil Dr. Pork Chop flashlight. Best of all, her hair

was freshly combed and styled. It probably stayed that way about 15 minutes--maybe!

Helping Daddy With The Dishes...

Each evening after supper, Cade and his daddy clean up the kitchen. Cade has been helping his daddy unload the dishwasher for several months now. It makes perfect sense because the kitchen is one of Cade's favorite places! Dish duty has become "their special time."

One evening I was visiting at my son's house when Cade wasn't much over a year old. My son, Brett, said to me, "Watch this!" Then he said "Cade, let's do the dishes!" I watched in amazement as Cade toddled over to the dishwasher and began removing the dishes. He would hand them to his daddy, one at a time, and Brett would reply "Thank you." I was impressed! Of course, it took forever to unload the dishwasher like that, but Brett let Cade hand him every dish that he was able to lift out of the dishwasher!

Last evening Brett, stopped by for a chat. He said "Let me tell you what Cade did!" He then proceeded to tell me that Cade has learned to put some of the dishes away by himself! He can correctly put away dishes in the cabinets that he is able to reach. He even knows to stack the smaller measuring cups inside of the larger ones! Not bad for a toddler who is not even 20 months old yet...Once again, I'm impressed!

Making Up For Lost Time...

I just haven't been up to the task of spending much quality time with the grand kids lately. The trip to Helen wore me out, then my mother-in-law's health has become a prime concern the past few days, and has caused some family drama.

Children are smart, and Madison has "picked up" on this. On Sunday evening, after an emotionally draining weekend for my husband and me, Madison begged and begged to spend the night with us.

It was already 9:30 pm, Madison hadn't had a bath, and honestly, I was exhausted. I promised her if she would go home to sleep, she could come over the following day. She wasn't sold on the idea, but after two hugs, she finally agreed to go home.

The following morning, I had to go to the bank in town. When I arrived home from town, Madison and her mama were waiting for me in my living room. Madison was ready to "collect" on her promise!

Madison and I began our day with a little water color painting. Madison is definitely improving with her paining skills. For some reason, she always wants to begin painting with the color black! I always have to explain to her that it's better to use black last so it doesn't mess up the other colors...

We soon got out the play dough which is always fun for Madison. She loves to play with these crazy dolls that grow play dough hair. Don't you just love those scissor skills in the picture above?

Soon we moved on to the play dough molds. Madison is getting pretty good at working with play dough. I suspect that she's been practicing at home without MiMi!

She seemed quite pleased with how her play dough fish turned out! After cleaning up the play dough, MiMi was tired and ready for a nap, so I cheated and put in a movie--Beauty and the Beast. I didn't think I really ever went to sleep, but apparently I did. When I sleep, I usually snore. Madison quickly let me know that I was disturbing her movie! Gotta' love her!

We ended our day by playing "Grocery Store". We got out the cash register, the shopping cart, and all of the groceries. When my husband arrived home from work, I was teaching Madison how to put away our groceries in the pretend kitchen! Now that's what I call smart--playing and cleaning up at the same time!

He's Ready To Go...

My little grandson, Cade, came strolling into my house the other evening "sporting" a brand new back pack.

Cade wearing that back pack, was the cutest thing that I've seen coming through my door lately!

The little back pack was just his size, and was packed with his "key" (monkey blanket that he sleeps with), his sippy cup, and a clean diaper!

It was obvious that this boy was ready to go--to MiMi's house!

Cade's new back pack was a gift from his Aunt Lisa(Cade's mama's sister), who is a preschool teacher.

That was so sweet of Aunt Lisa to buy Cade a back pack so he could be a "big boy", too!

I just love it!

Weak In The Knees...

It's no secret that our granddaughter Madison loves to come over to our house--and she hates it when the time comes to go back home.

I can't think of very many times that she's left our house without putting up a fuss. One of her parents will usually lead her out while she's wailing...

The other day, when the time came to go back to her house, Madison proclaimed that "my knees hurt, and I can't walk." As she proclaimed this, she let her knees go limp, and pretended that she was unable to get around. It was quite a dramatic performance.

It never ceases to amaze me what children can dream up at such an early age. I never thought our three and one half year old granddaughter would become crippled at the thought of going home!

It's a nice feeling to be loved...