It has been too long since we made a visit to "Grandma and Grandpas" house. The kids were REALLY excited to go! We had made appointments for myself, Violet and Calvin to get our teeth cleaned at dad's office Tuesday morning, so we made the trip up to MC Monday night. Dave got off work at a good time, and we had the car packed and were on the road by 5:50 pm. The drive going somewhere somehow always seems to take much longer than the drive back. Violet and Calvin were not the best of buddies on our drive up north, and were silenced for much of the trip. Violet asked how many minutes it would be til we got there SO many times we had to ask her to stop asking. First it was 45 minutes, then 40, then 38, then 35, you get the idea. When we excited the highway onto Hwy 65, we told her to stop asking because it would be about 10 minutes. My mom had a yummy supper of baked chicken/rice and broccoli ready to for us to eat, so we at pretty quick after arriving, a later supper around 7:30. Violet told Grandma Jo that broccoli was her bestest favoritest food in the whole wide world, and ate plenty of it. She enjoyed the chicken too. Calvin didn't eat all that much, but managed to have some bites, and struggled to chew/swallow his last bite of chicken. The night ended in a spanking for him because he did not swallow when daddy told him to. After that fiasco, the kids played well for another hour before getting settled into bed. During dinner Vanessa ate some grapes, cheese, turkey lunch meat, and some bites of broccoli. My mom had some neat foam building blocks which they enjoyed making towers and castles out of. Calvin stacked up all the little short blue ones and said they were all cakes. After they were in bed (Violet in Jay's old room, Calvin in "the office" pull-out bed, and Vanessa in the pack and play in the basement), Dave and I and mom and dad enjoyed some raspberry chocolate wine and sat and talked for awhile...covered lots of topics, one being the economic unstability of our country seeming to teeter on the edge of the dollar losing value like crazy. We went to bed around 11. I was woken up at 1:40 am by Calvin screaming in the upstairs hallway. I got out of bed quickly and helped him ~ I just took him to the bathroom and tucked him back in bed. I had to turn on his room's light to find all his "stuff". I had packed his favorite little white kitty, dump truck, and an extra blue blanket. His most special blue blanket was on top of the bags while I was packing and it got grabbed and played with while I was packing, so it did not make it into the van when we left Cedar Falls. I didn't realize it til after we were well on our way so there was no turning back for it. He seemed alright, which I was thankful for. After he settled back into bed, I went back to sleep. Dave got up at 6 am to get on a call with a co-worker, and I got up by 7:40. I came downstairs and found V and C in their pajamas, playing around, mom with curlers in her hair holding Vanessa on her hip while she tried to get breakfast ready. I got Vanessa and changed her diaper and nursed her while mom finished up breakfast. She had sausage frying in a pan on the stove and a yummy cheesy egg bake in the oven. Yum!
After breakfast, kiddos got dressed and we all got ready to leave the house by 9:45 to get to dad's office at 10 am for our appointments. Violet and I were scheduled at 10 am, Calvin at 10:30. Before we left, I put Vanessa down for her first nap, and Dave stayed home and worked. Mom watched the kids for me at dad's office while I was getting my teeth cleaned. Reports were all good, our teeth look great, and Nancy was surprised to find hardly anything to scrape off my teeth even though it had been a whole year since my last cleaning. Today was Calvin's first official teeth cleaning - and he did great! I didn't see any of it, I snapped one quick picture while I had a break. Dad and Helen told me he wanted to grab all the instruments that went in his mouth, and gagged a little when polishing, but he didn't scream or freak out, which I was pretty happy about. Violet was fine too, she was done before I was and came in my room to watch me a little. She preferred to play in the waiting room with Grandma Jo though. Everybody at the office was happy to see the kids. We drove home after we all finished and waited an hour before eating (fluoride treatments), and had peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for lunch. Vanessa woke up when we got home and had some lunch with us, but not PBJ, she had more grapes and cheese. Vanessa's favorite toy at Grandma's house this time was the little table toy her size. She pulled up to stand on it and smacked all the toys to her heart's content, and seemed surprised by all the noises she could make. She crawled more on her hands/knees too. Grandma Jo noted that when Vanessa sat on the floor, she spun in circles, using her legs to rotate her around and around. Vanessa is very attentive to whatever action is going on. She likes watching!
Doug offered to let the kids play at the gym from 1-2 pm, of course they didn't pass on that offer. I dropped my mom and V & C at the gym and took Vanessa over to the office so the ladies could see her. I stayed there for about 10 minutes, and went back to the gym to watch the kids play. I let Vanessa crawl around on the floor for awhile, even though she wasn't really happy to be left all alone at times. Violet and Calvin's favorite activity this time was digging as deep a hole as they could in the sponge pit and taking turns jumping in the big hole. One would jump in, dig deeper, get out of the way, and let the other jump in. This went on for about an hour, and then we headed home. Its always hard pulling them away from the gym. Doug was very kind to let us play there. Violet was quick to say thank you, and Calvin was very reluctant to say thank you.
Dave stayed up in the office working most of the day. We weren't sure when we were going to leave, it was up to Dave's work schedule when he could get away. He was on more conference calls, so the kids got involved with other toys, building more towers, playing with "the city", and having books read to them by whoever was sitting on the couch at the time. I started feeling very tired, it was close to Vanessa's nap time so I laid her down, and went upstairs to take a nap. My mom happily offered to let me sleep and I couldn't really turn down that opportunity. I slept for about an hour and a half, and Dave woke me up saying it was 5:30 and we had to get going. So we packed up...and headed home. The drive home seemed like it went very quick. Violet and Calvin were best buds again, giggling, bonking feet, holding hands, making up silly games and songs, and getting very excited whenever I would pass a truck or car on the highway. Dave tried to work productively in the car and ended up putting in earplugs so he could concentrate.
Thanks so much mom and dad for letting our family crash on your house for two days. We loved it, and can't wait to come back!
Vanessa doing her thing, destroying all objects with in her reach:
Calvin lost in his own world
Vanessa loving her "stand up" toy
Violet loves to color!
Calvin getting his teeth cleaned by Grandpa Jon, what a brave little guy!
Grandma Jo in the waiting room with the kids
Violet and Grandma Jo's "castle"
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