Yesterday morning was spent altering a pair of delightful flannel pjs that were gifted to me at Christmas …
They fit just fine, but I have a long-standing aversion to exposing my ankles, so I took out the cuffed hems to lengthen the pants … then reverse engineered them, putting the piping along the bottom, and seaming the raw edges together with a whipped stitch.
As I worked, I thought about why I’ve insisted on wearing over-long pants all these years (decades really). Upon reflection I decided to blame it on my mom (wink), who made me among the very last in my cohort to get a pair of bell-bottomed jeans (because she was sure it was sure to be a short-lived fad), which were way too short (queue a long wail of teenaged angst).
I never got over it, which is why to this day all my jeans have ragged back hems … ha!!
Yesterday also saw the beginning of what we hope to be once-a-week solo visits by our youngest grandchild … fondly referred to as “Littlest” by her doting nana. E’s two older siblings were similarly indulged during their respective pre-school years (although P got short shrift due to Covid).
I picked Ellis up at pre-school after nap time and sent a picture text to her mom once she was snugged into her car seat (yes, we roll with car seats, lucky us) …
Being new to the whole idea, Ellis asked if we were going to her house.
Nope.
But what about Parker?
Not today … you get to go to NanaPopPop’s house all by yourself!
I’m not sure that she was entirely on board with the idea, but we arrived without incident.
And so we spent a few golden hours together … painting with PopPop, mixing up cookie dough with Nana, making dinosaur puzzles, sorting sea shells, and eating a rainbow dinner of cherries (on ice cream for dessert), carrots (just a little bit), avocado (for yellow and green), and blueberries (for blue and purple), along with homemade chicken fingers and rice …
And if there is a decided dearth of pictures, well you can chalk that up to NanaPopPop being in the moment. Fortunately, there will be many more opportunities for picture-taking to come.
Last, but not least, when we took Ellis home, we were treated to Parker reading us a bedtime story entitled Elephants Can’t Dance by Mo Willems. The pictures were actually taken the night before by her Mom …
so we were able to relax into enjoying the encore performance … complete with questions at the end to check our comprehension. Our retired-teacher selves couldn’t have been more delighted.
I'm Going to Texas (version 2.0) 
My teacher self loves that closing story!! haha Lucky E. to start her alone turns 🙂 May you all enjoy many more.
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my daughter texted “she reads with such expression” … and I nodded, for sure her teacher “reads with such expression” too … what a gift to have a great Kindergarten teacher
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Oh, those daily over-the-shoulder shots! I’m still carrying the booster seat in the back and a small wicker basket full of small toys, books, markers, and journals.
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we have a booster seat in the back too … it’s a tight squeeze, but we actually fit 3 year old Ellis, 5 year old Parker and 10 year old Griffin in the back seat … lucky us! … and our basket holds nature guides to wildflowers, butterflies, and scat (ha!)
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How wonderful for Ellis to be with her grands, this family tradition is such a loving one. My grandson and granddaughter were about her age when their parents left them with us for a weekend. We were visiting in California so my daughter and son in law took advantage of this to go for an overnight trip. We thought the kids would be a little quiet to be just with us…HA! they were silly and fun and talked and talked, even when we took them out to dinner at a local favorite Chinese restaurant. Fortune cookies and green tea ice cream were an added treat.
To see Parker reading is such a delight, especially to see how engaged she is and how she holds up the book for her audience. Mo Willems, was one of my grands favorite authors when they were little, especially his book, Knuffle Bunny..
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Knuffle Bunny is such a classic … couldn’t help but think of it each and every time I’ve held a “boneless” toddler in meltdown mode (fortunately not very often)
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LA – so gorgeous to see the grandkids and the love and encouragement you and Don bathe them in. B
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fortunately there are no pictures of the two of us flaked out afterwards … goodness they have a lot of energy …
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Nice alteration on the P.J.s! Been thinking recently about all the things I love about spending time with children. It’s wonderful that you all have time together. 🙂
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Don spent 30 years with classrooms full of children … and I put in 12 years of K-12 school librarianship … time that prepared us well for our grandparenting days
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So wonderful to see the time together tradition continue…and the modified PJs. I find it interesting as I age to sit with those assumptions or acceptances of just how it is, and wonder where they came from. It was interesting to read you unfurling your thoughts about the ankles, and where you landed made perfect sense as an explanation. I was the kid who was so often late to the trends and when I finally made it there I was just out of date, and not quite right!
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I had to laugh yesterday as I got an email from a clothing retailer that showed bell bottom pants that hit at or above the ankle … so I’ll continue to be off-trend as my pants trail on the floor … and my ankles will remain happily hidden
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How fun, I want you to pick me up Liz so I can enjoy all the activities and food with you and Don. Ha ha You are so blessed to be able to do this with your grands.
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I have no doubt we’d have a grand time together … who knows what the future holds?
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So lovely, I’m sure she’ll be sold on the idea in no time! Due to several reasons making a perfect storm, including Covid, I’ve missed out on a huge chunk of my grand’s precious early years and now they’ve moved away. Thank goodness we at least have facetime etc!
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Covid stole a lot of time from us, but we are fortunate that our littles are still nearby …
don’t know if we’ll get to have an Ellis visit this week as we are currently in the middle of a serious ice event … hopefully it melts tomorrow, but there are so many trees and limbs down that roads may well be hazardous
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