We were in Portland a few weeks ago to take Alec to see Beauty & the Beast at Merrill Auditorium. On our way back we stopped by Erik’s office for a minute.
I was struck how completely Erik surrounds himself with Alec while at work.
It melted my heart.
I was going through my drafts of posts that were never posted from last year or maybe from 2011?! For some reason this one never was. I don’t know why. I guess I didn’t want anyone else to feel like they were not an important part of Alec’s life if they read this. But ya know what? Grandma is a blessing and she deserves this post.
The blessing of grandma.
She reads you stories on a cold dreary day and lets you nap on her.
She plays ‘black widow’ with you because one of your current obsessions is spiders.
She helps make the apple pie so you can have the pie eating contest you asked her to have with you.
Turns out you don’t like apple pie that much. :)
We already mentioned this one….right?
She sews up puppy who has had a hole for quite a long time.
She sits in the basement with you for hours listening to you talk non-stop.
She gets you tasty treats from the store and sits with you while you eat them…..
She lets spend the time at Cabelas looking at all the animals with you.
She sprung for the train ride in the mall for you when mom wouldn’t.
It’s soooo good to have a grandma around.
This winter has been prime for sledding so far. Erik & Alec, Alec & Ben, and Alec alone have spent loads of time in our back yard sledding down our mini hill. Just enough of slope to get some momentum. Erik took Alec to the big hill by our house last weekend too but I was out running errands and missed all the fun (ha! poor me!).
I am not sure whether Alec was tackling Ben or mere jumping on to ride down the slope with him.
Good thing they got all this snow time in because today it is 50% (*sigh* GG*) and it is all melting. In case you didn’t guess…that makes me happy.
I think we have established I dislike winter right? I really dislike being cold. Possibly it was spending most of my childhood winters on a warm pool deck.Hot and humid…yay! I like to be warm. In our old house I would crank our pellet stove to the max so I could walk around in bare feet and a tank top in the middle of winter. I have tried to like it a little more since Alec was born. Children do add some excitement to things. But mostly- I just send him outside while Erik snow blows. He gets a solid 45 minutes to an hour outside…and I don’t have to be out!
That was Alec shoveling the snow back onto the driveway after Erik has snow blowed it. Yeah- he’s helpful like that.
This would be Erik getting Alec back for such an act.
And occasionally I try to be some fun…so I brought him outside with some diluted food coloring in spray bottles.
I’m trying.
I do love the little guy so much that I am even willing go outside in the snow.
Let’s start with the Queen:
She’s lovely isn’t she? Very regal – and very kind to put up the paparazzi. Then we have the king:
The King is apparently very happy with his status and flashed the paparazzi a real smile. Next up the Prince:
He’s a solemn but proud kind of Prince. Where am I you might ask? Not very high on the food chain:
I am a Knight. I am not thrilled with my placement- It was explained to me (in an attempt to pacify me) that apparently I am rightful heir to the throne (to be Queen) but since the cat doesn’t know how to fight(?) she retained the title of Queen and by default I had to be a Knight. I did mention that possibly I could be Queen and Shania could be the Princess… But apparently then there would be no Knight – and without a Knight- no protection for the family.
*Sigh*
What’s a girl to do?
Nick (well Debbie) gave us his (their?) GeoTrax a few years ago. (Love us some good hand me downs!) We fondly refer to it in our house as ‘the messy train set’. We pull it out periodically which keeps it fresh and new for Alec and while stored away, keeps Erik and I from having fits and twitches from how messy it is.
In a moment of insanity (or a really good clearance sale this past summer)- we got Alec a few new pieces for it for Christmas. Why stop adding to the mess at this point? Although Alec was happy just with the new pieces, I pulled the entire set out one cold, snowy afternoon during Christmas break.
It is my mission to make the tracks actually loop together so that it makes sense.
Why is it I am only ‘Type A’ about trivial things? As my father can attest to- I actually got irritated with Alec because he was playing and I needed to test the tracks to see if they looped together correctly.
Sad this wasted perfectionism on Geo Trax.
