No, thank you.

TJ is 25 months old tomorrow and some one [ones] have been teaching him to be polite.
GG, "TJ do you want some more orange?" TJ, " no thank you."
GG, " TJ do you want to watch a 'Thomas" DVD? TJ, "no thank you." Amazing!
And he ASKS if he can do something, "can I put the truck into the water?" "yes, TJ and thank you for asking".
He was counting his 'Hot Wheel' cars. Not perfect but very close. Up to seventeen.
TJ put a clear empty cookie tub on his head and then wore it for a while.
He thinks chasing Lily the dog around the house with a plastic truck is most hilarious. He laughs uproariously when he startles her. If I say "TJ!" he leans over to give her a big hug.

Page 17) Kenzie is 2 1/2..... 9-5-98

Kenzie on the phone:" talk, talk talk....... Bye see you later OK?"
Kenzie after being given something: "OH, thank you"
10-8-98
If I suggest something "let's play trains..." you say, "good IDEA"
10-31-98
Happy Halloween! You are dressed as a firefighter this year. Tom was here passing out candy. I am so proud of you! You are only 2 and 3/4 years old and can move the mouse/arrow on the computer. you can get the cursor on anything you want. You luv the program "Just Grandma and me" You didn't like us to read to you when you were little, but I found the 'Little Critter" books by Mercer Mayer and now I can read to you all the time.
We [you and I] have been playing 'pig pile' for a long time. Grandma and Kelli or Tom or anyone will lay down and 'pile' on top of each other. The bottom person [pig] has to say 'oink' to get the other pigs off.
While I was on vacation last week, I found a heavy sculpture that was three pigs standing on top of each other. I bought it for you because it was the 'perfect' 'pig pile'. [Drawing of sculpture]. I missed you very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very much while I was on vacation. You are special, funny, kind, sweet, smart, strong, and wonderful. You luv the movie "Babe"
11-8-98
You stayed with Dawn [mom's friend] while I was on vacation. I watch you every day your mom goes to work. You were not happy staying with 'Dawn'. "I don't like your kitchen, I like my Grandma's kitchen."
12-8-98
Mom said you slept in her bed for a month after I went on vacation, sorry.
We went to 'Frankenmouth' on a city bus [your first time on ANY bus]. You were excited. Kenzie, " Mama, you, me on the city bus."

Shopper

On the way into the bird store [for bird food], TJ spotted grocery shopping carts outside a store. A grocery store named FOOD LION was near the bird store. I told TJ that we could go into the food store after we bought bird food. After being scared have to death by an uncaged blue Macaw, we left the bird store $25 dollars poorer. I hope my parrotlets are thrilled with food that costs more than porterhouse steak! True to my promise [he didn't forget and again saw the shopping carts], we walked over to the carts. They had three kinds; regular with a seat for a child, a smaller cart - no child seat and a big blue kid front facing [I thought he had said "blue cart" before]. TJ chose the no child seat smaller cart. GG, " TJ that one doesn't have a 'child seat'". LOL! HE wanted the one HE could push. So into the store we marched, with the 2 year old steering the cart. First stop the produce section. TJ picked up an apple and put into the cart and preceded to do the same with a couple of oranges, bananas, grapes, and tomatoes! What a wonderful sight.... a 30 inch shopper who pushed his own cart and knew exactly what he wanted to buy.

Freedom

Today's theme was inspired by Lily, my dog. I took TJ and Lily to the play park. We were the first to arrive, so I let Lily wander around - leash still attached. When she roams too far, I call her back closer to me. She may or may not listen. Today 'not'. When she got right to the edge of the trees and wouldn't listen to my calling her, I skipped right over and stood on her leash so she couldn't get into the woods. I led her back to the swing area and tied her to a bench. I explained to TJ that Lily had to stay tethered - she lost her 'freedom' - because she didn't listen and come back when I called her. "Just like when you don't stop doing something - like throwing books, and I have to put you in a time out. If you don't listen, you loose your 'freedom'.
Speaking of woods.... the 'honeysuckle' is wonderful. I don't remember 'honeysuckle' from my childhood. I remember smelling 'lilacs'. The first flower I noticed was purple Irises. My maternal grandmother had 'double french' lilacs. They sounded so special.

TJ said, "I love you"

The theme for today seems be water. The day started with TJ in the bathtub playing with tub paint and crayons. The baby gets painted as much as the walls of the tub. Tub art, I luv it! I don't know why, but I like to let the water run slowly into the bath. It take 15-20 minutes for it to reach navel high. When TJ turns into a prune it's time for a complete towel wrap, rocking and a song. 'Rock a bye baby'. The routine ends with me dumping [baby will fall] TJ on the bed. I have and will continue to wrap TJ in a towel and sing until I can no longer pick him up or modesty prevails. Which ever comes first. [I started this tradition with baby Mack]. I doubt M. remembers. After the bath I took TJ to 'Discovery Kids' in Huntersville NC. It is a giant museum just for kids with a train table, fire truck, building materials, stage, kid size cafe and grocery store. I forgot to mention water tables............. many water tables. In the car over, "TJ, no water play today. You just colored in the tub for an hour, and I don't have a extra shirt, if you get all wet." I did have extra pants. [They do provide water 'aprons' which I discovered are totally useless for keeping kids dry]. Well I suppose you have figured out what attracted TJ the most.... First his long sleeves got wet, [I had pushed the up.] then the front of the shirt and at the end there was a quarter size dry spot on the very back. And the pants were soaked in front. Well he did have a great time. I took the shirt off and put on the vest/jacket TJ wore over his shirt [I had removed it as it got warmer]. We ate lunch across the street and returned to the scene of the flood. TJ did visit many other play areas including the art room [he is smitten with scissors]. All and all we had a great time at 'Discovery kids' TJ asked for a vending machine juice when we were leaving. He wanted to put the dollar into the slot. So I pulled over a chair [TJ weighs 30 #s], he reached up and slid the money into the slot. I told him he could drink the apple juice when he was buckled into his car seat. While I was strapping him in he said [out of the blue] "I love you".

To the Rescue.

Everyday that I'm with TJ, I try to emphasize one concept. Today it was 'to the rescue'. I'm quite sure the concept has been introduced to him through his 'Thomas the Train' DVDs. I brought up the subject while we were playing at the park in the sandbox. A few feet away, one of his small trucks was turned on its side. I said, 'TJ, push the big dump truck over to the small overturned truck. Dump truck to the RESCUE!". [We were at the park 4 hours today.] Then I remembered that my car wouldn't start [broken] yesterday. I said, " remember my broken Mercury yesterday? The tow truck and tow truck driver came to the rescue. They fixed my car." Later today, before it was time to go home........... I was reading TJ a book that I had not read to him before. Wouldn't you know it, [from 'Stuart Little'] Snowbell the white cat rescues Stuart the mouse.
From out of the blue, TJ said," Sophie [my daughters dog] ate my new Woody/Buzz ball." This happened in Feb/March in Michigan. It's been 6 weeks since he has seen Sandy or Sophie.

Birds.

I'm not a fan of TV, but I will watch a movie once in a while. I get them from the library, Goodwill and garage sales. After I watch them, I donate them to the library. Everybody wins except the produces of the movie. I have a cat, Speedy, that Mack picked out from a shelter when he was younger. And a dog, Lily, that I went to Ohio to retrieve from an overcrowded shelter. Everybody wanting to adopt a dog, overlooked her, because she seemed a bit scattered. [Life in a cage will do that to you.]. A cat and a dog don't make much noise. So....................... I thought - A BIRD - would make nice noises to fill my quiet days. Well..... the green Parrotlets came as a set; Pauly and Emma. They are not very noisy. So I thought .... get a canary, a male canary will sing beautifully. I answered an ad for - 3 canaries [with cage] - $60. Much to my chagrin, the three canaries WERE NOT canaries at all.... they were 3 parrakeets [budgies]. Parakeets make sounds and can learn to talk. "I'm NOT paying $60. for birds that were advertised as 'canaries'. $40. later [sympathy buy], I have an apartment full of noise. I still wanted canaries, the male sings a wonderful song. To make a long story short, I adopted Elliot and Peachy from a bird fancier. 7 birds and much noise later, I'm a happy renter. Maybe Elliot will teach the other birds to sing a canary song. Wouldn't that be nice.
In the ongoing saga of Peachy the canary: she tried AGAIN to nest [lay an egg]
in the seed cup. Being the intelligent, wise and resourceful human
that I am, I decided to switch the seed/water cups..................being the
stubborn canary that she is, Peachy put nesting material in the WATER. I gave up
and bought her a nest made out of bamboo [how could she resist?]. I lined the
nest with a HANDMADE crocheted cotton liner [see picture] [canary site says...
felt...DO YOU KNOW WHAT FLT IS MADE FROM????? Recycled PLASTICS bottles yuk.
Pittuey! ] No PLASTIC FELT for MY bird! I hung the arrestable cotton lined nest
in the darkest safest corner of the bird cage as recommend. Elliot looked at it
- Peachy would not go near it. [More nesting material the the water. OK OK YOU
WIN. I removed the water cup and repositioned the nest to be EXACTLY where her
little bird brain insisted she deposit her eggs. Sheese. As you can see from
the pictures, she has approved of the position of the nest by bringing white
shredded cotton-fluff into it. The canary site says that only the female builds
the nest, seems sexist to me. What does the male contribute to the procreation
of baby birds? Fine ------ he sings....big deal!

"I don't know"

I taught TJ to say "I don't know" with hand signs. Usually, when he is stumped for the answer, he just says...hrump.. kinda in his throat. He learned to say "me" a few months ago, to the question "who is it" preceded by knock knock on the bathroom door. He started by saying 'TJ' to "who is it?"but, once I told him to say "me", he never said "TJ" again. Pronouns are not the easiest thing for little ones. TJ says 'Thomas' [the tank engine] every day of his life now. While out with his dad, someone official ask Tom is name.......Tom said, "Thomas." TJ was surprised to find out that his Dad {Tom} had the same name as 'Thomas the tank Engine.' Every day is special, wonderful and amazing to TJ and to the Grandma, who shares a lot of each day with him.

Spring 2012

It's hard to believe that it is 2012. I remember anticipating 1976 - the bicentennial year. 1776-1976 There were many years that I looked forward to and dreaded the BIG 2000. That year was special for the obvious reasons and it marked my 1/2 century birthday. I can think back to when I was a kid thinking 'WOW I'll be 50 in 2000'! Well here it is already 2012. I applied for Social Security as soon as I was eligible. My first check will enter by bank account the 3rd Wednesday in May. There are silver linings to getting older. And not so 'silver linings', my Dad at 87 has had Alzheimer's for a couple of years. Let's hope I didn't get THAT gene. If I do, let's hope I don't notice.

OOOPpppppssss...... it's only been 8 1/2 months.

Couldn't edit previous post. LOL

15 Months............................later.

Well a lot has happened in the 15 months since I last blogged. I'm not sure, but I think, living with my son and daughter in law [I now live in a small apartment] put a spell on my blogging. That or I was lazy. I did turn some my early blogs into a book for each grandson. I'm happy living alone, if you can call one dog, one cat and seven birds [three cages] alone. I'm not a fan of TV and the birds add a cheerful noise. Today the female canary is sitting in the seed dish fluttering her feathers, while her male cage mate is feeding her. I don't know what he could be feeding her, since she has her fluffy feathered self hiding all the food. Ah spring..........all of life seems to be trying to reproduce. I found tree seedling in the playground wood chips, and explained to TJ that great big trees sent seeds down to the ground, trying to start a new tree. After lunch, TJ and Lily had a bath...........not together, just at the same time [Lily in the shower next to the tub]. TJ had fun painting the tub and himself with some washable [sort of] paint. He is still a little pink on belly and chest. Potty training is a topic now. TJ was naked on the deck after his successful art project, and I told him 'no peeing on the deck'. Soon I heard him say 'no peeing on the deck' so I told him to pee on a bush near the deck. SUCCESS!!!!