California

We took a trip to California to visit my family. A good part of the trip was to visit Nanny (my mom's mom). She had a stroke in September and had been declining in health ever since. When we got into town, I went to visit her with my mom. The kids were sick and tire from traveling so we decided to let them stay home and not share anything with Nanny. When I walked into the room and Nanny saw me her face lit up. I don't write that to say that I am wonderful but more that Nanny just loved her family. She was very happy to have a surprise visit from family. We chatted about how much trouble she had been causing in the assisted living home. I told her that I suspected that she had been teaching John how to be rascally. She didn't deny it. We laughed and giggled. She told me about some old pictures in her photo album. The nurses had given estimates of how much longer Nanny would be with us but it didn't seem possible because she had so much life in her that night.

Friday we went to Emily's house and hung out there. My kids think Emily's house is heaven on earth. They had cousins to play with, a dog to chase, and a trampoline. What more could a kid hope for? The girls all went for pedicures and manicures. Emma was in love. She walked out with purple finger nails and pink toes. Aunt Mary is truly Aunt Mary. She also took Emma out for ice cream with sprinkles and whipped cream. Turns out that Emma doesn't like whipped cream??? Go figure. That night Katie was kind enough to watch the kids while Mary, Brian, Emily, Aaron, and I went out for dinner. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. The times that I am most likely to laugh that hard is when we are with my family or Aaron's family and it is just the siblings talking.

On Saturday we went to the beach. It was beautiful out and the kids even went in the ocean. I have a policy that I don't go swimming when it is cooler than 90 degrees outside. And I certainly don't go in the pacific ocean. The kids loved it. John would get knocked down by the waves and think it was hilarious. Emma played in the ocean the longest and John dug in the dirt. He made friends with a little girl who apparently had better sand toys than the ones we brought. He followed her around for quite some time.

On Sunday Aaron, Emma and John went to visit the Kellers in Bakersfield. I wasn't there so I can't report on it but from what I heard, they had a great time playing with cousins and visiting family.

On Monday we went to the beach again and saw some tide pools. It was pretty cool. I learned that I have been lied to my whole life. It turns out that there is no such thing as a starfish. I don't remember what the technical term for them is because I got too hung up on the fact that I had been lied to by a whole lot of elementary school teachers. I do remember that they aren't starfish because they don't have a vertebrae. Emma listened very intently when the guy said not to walk in the water or on any of the plant or animal creatures. In fact she would ask for help to walk carefully on the rocks so I took her hand. What she neglected to mention was that she wanted me to essentially carry her. So as soon as I held her hand, she would lift up her feet and I found myself trying to balance myself while holding Emma in the air by the hand all on slimy rocks in flip flops. We didn't last long on the rocks. The beach was a much better place for us. At this beach, the bathrooms were forever away. I had to go, so I asked Emma if she needed to go with me. She said no. I made the trek alone. As soon as I got back, Emma informed me she had to go bad. Aaron and I consulted with each other and told Emma to pee in the ocean. The look of horror on her face was classic. It took a lot of coaxing to get her to go. At one point I explained that fish pee in the ocean. She was horrified again. Her concern was that someone would step in her pee. She eventually got over it. After the beach, Emma jumped forever on the trampoline. Then after John's naps, Aaron took the kids to the park and played sardines. All of the neighborhood kids came out to play sardines with Aaron and the kids. It was pretty funny. I watched Emma run around after a full day of swimming, jumping and play and was amazed at her energy. She crashed on the way home.

Tuesday we went to visit Nanny because she had taken a turn and wasn't all that responsive. It was good for the kids to be able to see her. Emma watched Nanny. John just ran a muck and then it was evident that he needed to get out before something terrible happened. I was shocked at the difference between Nanny on Thursday and Nanny on Tuesday. She went from animated and joking to constant sleeping.

On Wednesday morning we got a phone call that Nanny was going to leave us soon. So we all went down there. The entire family was there. We sat by her, talked with her and each other. We got to look at pictures and share memories of Nanny and Monticello. The grand kids played together and ran around the halls of the assisted living center. At one point Emma sat by Nanny, patted her hand and told her it was going to be ok. It was very touching. At one point my mom was going to wash Nanny's face and Emma was concerned that it was hurting Nanny and told my mom that was enough. When it came time for Nanny to see her family in Heaven, we were all able to be there by her side. I imagined a very happy reunion on the other side with her family. She was finally released from her body that was failing on poor health. I was happy for her to have that happy moment after months of health struggles after her stroke.

One of the things that has impressed me the most about Nanny was that she didn't want to have kids. She cared for 3 siblings for weeks all by herself when she was 15. That would be hard. However, she did decide to have kids. I am grateful she had my mom. I love my mom. I think she is wonderful. Everyone that meets my mom thinks she is wonderful. So it is universally confirmed that she is awesome. So it was probably hard for Nanny to run a business and raise kids, but my life is blessed because she did. And because she was active in the church, my mom was raised in the church. I looked around the room with all of our family there in Nanny's apartment and saw a bunch of people and generations that have been blessed by the gospel and she had a hand in that. Thank you Nanny. I love you and will miss you.

Tooting

In our house, we call farting tooting. Apparently it is a very funny thing because the mention of the word sends Emma into a fit of giggles. She isn't alone. John already things they are funny too.

Aaron was changing John's diaper one time and John tooted. Aaron laughed. Turns out that was enough to motivate John to attempt to toot every time he has a diaper change. If he succeeds, he says, "tooters!" and laughs. He keeps trying over and over throughout the entire diaper change. You can see his face getting flush and his stomach muscles working hard to produce a hilarious event. Diaper changes are a lot of work for all involved.

Halloween

I took the kids trick or treating for Halloween around our neighborhood. Emma was Cinderella and John was a skeleton. Our neighborhood has improved a ton in 5 years. The first year we got about 5 trick or treaters and I ate a ton of candy on my own. This year there was a decent turn out. Emma required some prodding and prompting to say "trick or treat" but she eventually did it. John figured out what was going on and said trick or treat and would reach out for candy to put in his pumpkin. In fact if the homeowner didn't move the bowl fast enough, he would keep filling his pumpkin with candy.

There is one house in our neighborhood where no matter the weather, the man doesn't wear a shirt. In five years, I have seen him in a shirt two times. One, was a pink polo of all things and the other, he had just gotten out of his car from work, so that one almost doesn't count. We got to the driveway of this house and Emma asked that we not go to this house. I asked why and finally got out of her, "What if he doesn't have a shirt on?" She was very concerned. I told her it would be ok, mostly because I figured, surely, for Halloween he would wear a shirt. She summoned the courage and we walked up to the house and rang the doorbell. Much to Emma's relief, his wife, fully clothed, answered the door. Crisis averted. By far that was our scariest Halloween moment of the evening.

After that we turned down a cul-de-sac and met a little girl who apparently lives a few houses down from us. Emma and this little girl became friends. At one door they got talking with each other and forgot to ring the doorbell.

When we got close to home John held up a lolly pop that he found in his pumpkin and said, "Pop!" He did this over and over until I figured out that his statement was more of a request to eat it than a declaration of discover. How could I be so slow?? I took it from him and sure enough he had tried to chew off the wrapper to get to the candy. When we got home John continued to eat his blow pop and Emma was introduced to the exciting world of fun dip. She loved it... oddly enough. So every night she has had some candy. Twizzlers are gross and laffy taffy is good. This is an exciting introduction into all sorts of candy that Emma has never had before.