Is My Daughter Crazy?

Here she is with her youngest daughter, who just started kindergarten.  Doesn't LOOK crazy, does she?

But, in spite of having four kids:

Hi best grandchildren ever!

One Black Lab:

Hi Feebee!

One hedgehog:

Hi Wembley!

And one hermit crab (which dH and I have NEVER seen, in all our visits, and which I think might not actually exist---hence no photo),

she just texted to say that she and the kids are on the way to the animal shelter to pick out, not one, but TWO kittens!

So yes, she might be crazy, but since I love kittens and cats and dogs, she could only be crazy in a GOOD way.  

And now I have to visit so that I can play wid da cay-uuute widdle kitties.

Update:

Meet Lucy and Milo!!!

PTSD

We have had our four grandchildren here since last Tuesday.  They are at the airport now waiting for their flight to Austin, TX, where their Dad and their dog, FeeBee, will be very happy to see them.

Baxter and Molly, however, have had mixed reactions to the intruders.  

Molly, even though the kids have been gone a couple of hours now, is still in hiding in the basement, where she spent most of their visit. Is there PTSD counseling available for cats?

Baxter came and went from view throughout the week.  He occasionally found temporary (but ineffective) hiding places:

And other times he was quite happy to spend time watching the kids.  This morning he even seemed unhappy that they seemed to be preparing to leave.

But sitting on a suitcase didn't work.

I Have My Orders

My four grandchildren are coming to visit next week.  I asked my daughter to ask the youngest what she likes to eat.  

I received this:

Illustrations by Ella

So, some undetermined dinner (is that a chicken?) and most important, apparently, brownies and cakes.

My grandson was much more focussed on dinner:

Alrighty then. Brisket, brownies and cake.

Easy enough.  Boring, night after night, but easy.

$1,000 REWARD!!!!!!

Not really.

But my Chacos, the shoes that I have worn since surgery on my left foot, the shoes that have prevented surgery on my right foot, that have just the perfect sponginess to support my foot, and that along with my Birkenstocks (stylish----c'est moi) have kept me comfortably shod all these years, they have

GONE MISSING !!!!!

Please, please come back...

Now logic is my middle name (not really---it's Louise), and logic tells me that shoes can't possibly disappear in one's own home. But I have looked everywhere (except where they are, obviously), and they are just flat-out missing. I grilled my recent houseguests: two daughters, four grandchildren, and I do mean GRILLED, until they almost r u n n  o f t, and they all denied having any involvement with the disappearance of my shoes.

Yes, I have other shoes.  Yes, I even have other Chacos, but these were my most recent purchase, and my favorite.

I may have to give up and go to the store for another pair, and then, I am sure, the missing shoes will show up.


***************

In other news, we all had a great time, in spite of the nearly constant rain.  It rained, sometimes ALL day, each and every day that they were all here. (It's raining now.) On Monday though, the rain held off  until later in the day, and my husband, daughters and grandchildren had a great time at Six Flags.  I, martyr that I am, stayed out of the heat and sun and off of the scary rides and made the aforementioned Ile Flottante. My husband is out of town every other week, so I rarely have guinea pigs diners I can experiment on cook for.  But in spite of being left behind, I had fun making dessert.

However, I need my grandchildren to answer for this affront:

WHY, oh WHY, are there goldfish left in this container? WHY didn't you eat them all?  Grandpa doesn't like them, so now it's left to me to finish them off.

Martyr, thy name is Knittergran.


UPDATE:  Chacos found!  Yay!

Signpost

Get it?

Sign post?

A post about signs?

Never mind.

What can I say? I love weird, corny, odd, funny signs. I'm just back from Austin, TX where I saw these:

A little rude maybe---
Snicker....

Um... A hair studio? I get the Cut but the Shoot? My daughter suggested that they take pictures of the haircuts, but this IS Texas, so something else may be going on. Think .....shooting range out back???And what does a stag have to do with Catholic supplies? Or tile?
Chuckle....
I did NOT take a picture of the three vultures devouring a newly car-hit deer alongside the road.

You're welcome.

**********************************

Enough of that.

Lily's dance recital was on Saturday and I was there----it was a lovely event, Lily danced perfectly and then received these beautiful flowers from her many fans.

My last night in Austin I was accompanied by one of these creatures on my walk down the hall to the bedroom, only the one I met was much LARGER and much SCARIER than this one. Really!!!

I shouted for my sister (who wasn't even there---weird) and then when she didn't immediately show up, for my daughter. My son-in-law and oldest granddaughter showed up first. My granddaughter shouted: Don't kill it!!!

WHAT??? Kill it ten times over, I say. Then put it down the garbage disposal. Ten times.

But instead, my daughter trapped it under a glass, and my granddaughter and son-in-law slid a piece of paper under the glass and scorpion and took it outside to set it free, where it probably did a U-turn and headed back for the house where its thousands of babies still live.

I'm back in Atlanta, where there are no scorpions. I think.

Let Your Kid Have a Computer

and she steals your blog post.

(Hey, H! I was gonna write that!)

I know. I know. He who hesitates is lost.

They're Here!

To preserve our sanity, I decided all visitors' shoes should be in one place to avoid the "Where are my shoes????" every time we go someplace.

We'll see how long it lasts.

Baxter hid the first day, came out and snooped the second, and today, he's wandering, but staying a step ahead of the small people. I bet he'll miss them when they are gone.

Would it be Wrong

to pay grandchildren a bounty for dust bunnies?

It would save on vacuuming. Just a thought........

Deer in the Headlights

Now I know what he feels like.

Tomorrow my older daughter and her four children, ages 10, 8, almost 5, and almost 3 arrive.

I am trying to be ready. Last year, I was very organized but I discovered that with four young personalities, there are no guarantees that plans will be successful. This year I am not organized, and I'm hoping that if I have enough of the basics (snacks, toilet paper), all will go well.

Baxter has no idea what he is in for. He has never been around children en masse, so watching him adjust, if he does, should be interesting.

Poor Baxter?/Happy Baxter? Time will tell.

What Color Pony Do You Want?

Older daughter just called me to tell me about her conversation with Elizabeth (2). Elizabeth came running out of her bedroom this morning carrying a jacket.

E: Wook! It's a sweater Gwan maded for me!

oD: No, Gran didn't make that.

E (after a puzzled pause): Gwanpa maded it?

oD: No. It came from a store.

E: Oh.

Elizabeth remembers me!!!! From a month ago!!!

I'm off to buy a pony. If oD says it's OK.

The Thrill of Victory

All of the houseguests have left. It was wonderful to have everyone here.

One houseguest had a birthday. Guess how old?!

Ella climbed at Nationals.

Lily and Elizabeth went to Babyland.

Campbell, well, Campbell just plain had fun.

The kids were great! No whining. No temper tantrums. Their mother claims that they do these things at home, but I don't know that I believe her.

Their mother says that there is no reason for tantrums, crying or whining when every single whim, wish and desire is met.

Yesssssss!

Knittergran Rocks!!!

Uhmmmmmm.....

That is eighteen-month-old Elizabeth's response to every question I ask her. Sometimes she follows up with the rest of the answer in a language that is not English, and other times she just wanders off. She does have a bit of an English vocabulary: up, down, momma, daddy, the names of her two sisters, outside and inside (they sound quite a bit the same), and nine, which means mine. She is a DOLL!!!

I leave tomorrow, and boy! will I miss them all!

A Sleep-over

Older daughter told her children this morning that I was arriving tomorrow morning for a visit.

My grandson said, "She's gonna have a sleep-over?!"

Actually, I'm going to have four of them.

Can't wait!

Hey!!!!!

What happened???

It's eerily quiet here...

Oh, rats. My daughters and grandchildren went back to their respective homes. And we were having such fun!

See???

Poor older daughter was so tired (Elizabeth just wouldn't sleep through the night) that she fell asleep on the floor and her three older children attacked her. (Not really - though I bet she could have fallen asleep on the floor!)

They all arrived on Saturday, and on Monday, my HERO, the dishwasher repairman came and fixed my dishwasher. Yay! But now my washing machine is leaking. It's a million years old, so it may just be begging to go to "a better place," as younger daughter's abridged copy of Little Women said about where Beth went when she died. Years later when we were discussing the book and we mentioned Beth's death, younger daughter said, "She died!!! I thought she went to the beach."

For grandson, though, a better place is his own home, with his daddy, his bedroom, and his bed. The poor little guy was so homesick that we once found him at the front door, trying to get the door open while crying, "I want to go home."

So now they are all home, and I'm off to do laundry......or not.....

Sniff...sniff...sniff.....

My shawl...ooops...wrap is finished, and so, nearly, is the visit from my two daughters and my grandchildren. Poor, poor me. I will miss them all. Four children are a lot of children, and a LOT of fun. They are really funny and don't even know they are funny. And Elizabeth is just every kind of sweet:

Elizabeth (9 months old) with younger daughter

Younger daughter has a talent for the fiddly bits of any type of project, and she put all of the eleven-inch fringe on the sha....wrap. Doing that is sort of beyond my natural patience. Now I owe her a wrap like the one Reese Witherspoon wears in Sweet Home Alabama. I hadn't really wanted such a large project, but believe me, getting that fringe done by someone other than myself is well worth it.

Austin, Texas

Day Four

I have been unfairly accused of there not being any discipline when I watch the grandchildren.

This is not true.

When they are doing something I consider to be a questionable activity, I ask them, "Would your mother say it is OK for you to do this?"

They say "Yes."

See?

(And if Lily cries, I let her do or have whatever she wants.)

Austin, Texas

Day Three

Babysitting for older daughter:

Chaos reigns because I apparently cannot rein (hah, hah, hah) in the activities of four children at once (ages: 8, 6, 2 1/2, 8 months). They are well-behaved children, but there are four of them and that means constant NOISE.

Fighting noise, playing noise, crying noise, screaming noise, laughing noise, assorted noise.
ALL THE TIME!

But they sure are cute and it sure is fun....

Back From Austin

This is a picture of me, doing what I do best, although you can't tell it from Elizabeth's expression. I spent LOTS of time holding Elizabeth, walking Elizabeth, talking to Elizabeth and...well, you get the idea. She is just starting to react to people so it was a special treat to be there with her.

I did play with the other grandchildren, of course. We went to the bookstore, Grandpa took them ice skating, and we just hung out. We worked on knitting and Ella is getting quite proficient at it. I even was able to teach her to cast on. Her first big project is knitting a hat for Elizabeth and it's going very well.

There is no better treat at Christmas, or anytime, than to spend time with family, and especially with little ones.

I hope your holidays were just as great as ours !

New Baby!

Check out hokgardner's blog today for big happy news!

Oops...

This past weekend, I went to Austin to visit my wonderful, perfect, gorgeous and funny grandchildren (and their parents). I had a great time just watching and listening to them. Yesterday we stuffed them in the hot car (it was HOT in Austin-over 100 every day, and one day, even 105!!!) to take them to lunch, and then to a new yarn shop in town. It's called Gauge and it's great! Lots of gorgeous yarns to pet and drool over. The woman there was very nice, and didn't even seem to mind 22-month old grandson "admiring" the yarn. I told older daughter that she was to stop me from buying any more yarn, but she must not have been listening, because, oops, I ended up with this:
It's Lorna's Laces hand-dyed Shepherd Sock Yarn (80% superwash wool, 20% nylon) and it is really, really soft and the colors are ...well, you can see the colors. My daughter and I each bought the same colorway, and will make socks out of it. Great minds think alike.

However, I REALLY had not intended to buy yarn, but resistance was futile. One of the best reasons to knit socks is that no matter where you are, if you see a sock yarn you love, you know how much you need. The same is not true of sweaters and other items, so you end up either buying a new pattern in order to buy the yarn, or you leave the yarn in the shop for another knitter. But you can ALWAYS buy sock yarn!

And if you live in Austin, and love this particular colorway in Lorna's Laces, too late---we beat you to it and bought it all. Sorry...