Missing TJ

TJ has been gone for 5 days now and it's too quiet around here. I'm missing the hugs, laughs and special moments. I did get his 'blanket' finished. It's made for a twin size bed. Knitpicks.com had a deal...spend $50. and shipping is free. I knew I wanted cotton yarn for his blanket and they had 4 colors of 'organic' cotton. white. cream, light coffee and darker coffee. I also bought a softer fuzzier cotton in brown and cream. This yarn was not a heavy/thick as the organic, so when I used it, I used two colors together [variegated]. I tried a couple of patterns [granny squares and straight 178 stitches across] but, kept going back to zig-zag because the most you have to count is 7 [ seven single stitches up - three single stitches in one stitch - seven single stitches down - skip two stitches except for the first row which is a 155 stitch chain]. The pattern of colors changed as I went along. It was supposed to be darkest at both ends and lightest in the middle, but when I worked with the softer yarn I decided to end the top with the two strand two color yarn for softness near the face. It didn't seem wide enough after I was 1/4 of the way done, so I crocheted until I thought is was long enough and had the darker balls of yarn left. So I single crocheted up and down both side of the blanket to make it wider. When I thought I had used most of my yarn I finished the sides with a trim stitch that I made up [not too girly] starting at one end of row chain three - skip one stitch - single crochet in next stitch - repeat until opposite end of row. I underestimate the amount of yarn I needed for the width and having the same color yarn as first row .....I decided to make the blanket longer, inventing a stitch that put more weight on the bottom section of the blanket. I pulled yarn up through both strands of a single stitch and pulled yarn through TREE loops on my hook instead of the normal two! Don't know how long it took to make. On and off for three months? Every single stitch is a kiss from GG and every open space is a hug! Sweet dreams TJ.

Page 14.) 8-13-98

We have been very busy watching 'Kim' [a foster child of Grandpa's] watching Devin & Rekha. Great Grandpa Gosline [Bud] had surgery yesterday. [Kim is your age].
I caught a cold on Monday and broke my toe. [picture of foot pointing to toe on left foot next to baby toe]. I smashed into the door moulding coming out of the laundry room. You and Mom took me to the 'foot Dr.' You kissed my foot and asked, "feel better"?
You have a [stuffed] monkey named 'cha-cha' you luv very much. Mama says last night, "where's chi-chi?" You said, "no Mama not 'chi-chi' 'cha-cha"
Trains have surpassed 'baseball' for you right now. You're just starting to luv 'Tela-tubbies' and you talk about them to us. Pacifier and 'silky' are still a big thing but, you get them mostly in bed. We are starting to talk about the' big potty'. You put diapers on cha-cha. Mama and GG love you very, very, very, very much!

Page 13.) 7-27-98 [in Jay's baby journal].

P. 13) 7-27-98

Today is Monday! It is a beautiful day! NOT HOT! We went to Aunt Kathryn's to see Devin & Rekha. You are an incredible boy! You will be 2 1/2 half next month [August] and you talk very well. Big sentences. You saw 'McDonalds' [sign] the other day...."french fries Grandma" "Sorry Jay, it's too early [10a], they don't make fries until 10:30" We drove more and you saw 'Denney's' sign [restaurant] , you pointed and said "Eat there!"
Jay wanting something........"Please, I love you. Best Grandma in the Whole World"
You do shorten it to ..............."Please, Best in the whole world."
The other day we went and saw large boys play a baseball game. [Cabrini] You were buckled into the stroller ; "Buckle Grandma Buckle" " no Jay you can't join the game." " Baseball bat." You wanted to hold a 'real' bat sooooooooooooooo badly............."no Jay, the boys have to use the bats for their game" {not something a 2 year old understands}. After the game was over, I unbuckled you and you ran over to a silver bat laying on the ground. I put my foot on the bat so you couldn't pick it up and hurt yourself with the very large and heavy bat. You were bent over trying to pick up the bat, I was standing on it...."Best in the whole world." I took my foot off. You said, "Heavy".

Another quiet day.

Everybody is safe and sound where they are supposed to be. Why my body said "GET UP" at 5am I'll never know. Sometimes I doze in same the red rocker/recliner that I rocked Jay in fifteen years ago. We watched many movies together side by side in the 'big red chair'. Now I'm rocking my 14 month grandson TJ in the same chair. It has seen more hugs and kisses than any other piece of furniture. I think I'll crochet a cotton cover for it that matches my comforter. My day started with garage sales, home for lunch and yoga [less relaxing - more intense workout]. I don't know why these young instructors think I can do all the poses that they can. I'm sure I look ancient to them; hell I look ancient to me! TJ is crazy about balls and ANYTHING that looks like a ball' ....even a circle. Oranges are balls, apple is apple, we have large and small red, blue, green, purple, orange, and pink balls. We have 'heavy", basket, base, foot, and soccer balls. Also we have happy, fuzzy, crazy, dog, cat, silly, soft and stripped balls. We have always named a color, activity, or size to go with each ball, and he can say which ball he has. TJ luvs to hold his balls in his hands and when he got three small [one between his hands] he beamed. Now he can hold 4 [2 in each hand] balls and his chest sticks out a little farther.

Quiet Friday

The family was in a flurry this morning getting ready to go to the airport and work/bike weekend. That sentence does not include me. I just get to enjoy the quiet. It thunder stormed off and on all day. Garage sale shopped, planned my WW [weight watcher] meals, organized, crocheted the blanket I'm making for 'big boy' TJ and did some light cleaning. Tomorrow more garage sales and yoga. I'm sure Ann and TJ are enjoying their visit to her parents house. "I miss you guys." TJ has been talking up a storm. He repeats a lot of what you say. This morning he looked thinner to me and Ann. I swore I wasn't going to repeat the shopping mistakes I made with Jay. "GG can I have......................??????" I just love buying my grandchildren what they want. This time I want to pretend that GG doesn't know where or how to get to the stores. Let his parents buy him want he wants. I buy balls at garage sales.

Hard work aka I'm back.

Yes, I know, I have been ignoring my blog for too long. It's not easy to think of something to expound upon M-F. Sometimes aka MOST times, I haven't the foggiest idea what I'm going to write about until I'm sitting in front of a blank page. Even then it might take me a few minutes to THINK of something worth sharing. I could make this easy and write about all the cute things that TJ does but, I'm sure that might get stale after a month/year. I do want to mention [maybe I already did] that I turned my first year of blogging into a book; one for Jacob-one for TJ. I used real names in the book. I am very happy that it turned out well. So............mostly this blog is for Jacob and TJ. I'm sure I can think of some amusing things that happened since I last blogged. TJ is doing amazing after his surgery. TJ and Ann are flying to MI tomorrow to visit family. No excuses.......I have lots of time to blog during the upcoming week.

Sailed through.

TJ came through his 'belly button' surgery with a smile. Surgery at 7am, home by 8:35am. What an amazing baby. He has a big bandage on his tummy and under the bandage a stitch. All should be healed in a week or so.

Surgery

TJ is having out patient surgery Monday to remove what looks like a large jelly bean on his belly button. It's not a hernia, it was a small growth that got larger from not clamping his navel completely at birth. It looks like it would hurt to pull on it, but TJ is very fond of it. He likes to touch it. TJ was 13 months old May 1st. He still has only two teeth, but talks well. He likes to repeat words especially if they have to do with his favorite thing...........balls. TJ knows his colors because he has so many balls that we have to call them small or big and by their color and texture. We are working on teaching him to 'kick' his balls into his 'tent' to get a 'SCORE!'. He already knows that if he throws them in a basket he gets 'SCORE!. The same goes if he throws his diapers into the trash. TJ can name a few 'shapes' that go into the Tupper Ware puzzle ball. He likes Barney, Selena Gomez, peas [balls] bananas, cheese and many other foods. Grandma 'GG' is having a blast taking care of TJ, just like she did taking care of Jacob.