OKC Friday - Antiques and Babysitting

Friday, August 29th we planned to have a day trip with Robin but did not want to venture too far due to possible Labor Day weekend traffic. A salesclerk at one of the Duncan antique stores highly recommended that we to go the Rink Gallery, an antique store in Bethany that is housed in a former ice skating rink. Frank and I thought this was a unique venue and the place was only 15 miles from Robin's house, mostly north and a bit west.

The store was quite extensive but most items were too large
for us to take back to California with us... thank goodness!

It was a pretty big place, mostly specializing in furniture. Since Robin is looking to furnish a room dedicated to her sewing, she was on the lookout for a specialized piece or two with character. Nothing caught her fancy this time but she will keep the place in mind and go back there. We had fun looking at how old things had been refurbished or discussing how old pieces could be spruced up and re-purposed. I enjoyed seeing how the tastes of my grown daughter had evolved. I bought this padded laptop case that was just too cute to pass up. It is a tongue-in-cheek melding of the old and the new.

There are no ⌘ keys or .com or .net short cut keys on this keyboard.
And, hey! It is missing a whole row of function keys.
But QWERTY lives on.

We got a set of blocks for Autumn and a miniature red flyer wagon that she was already using by that afternoon to haul around her Rainbow Brite and Patty-O-Green dolls. Sorry, she moved too fast for me to get a picture of her doing that. Instead I found some pictures online of the dolls that were like Robin's as a little girl. Robin's dolls are in great shape. Just a bit of a thick paste of water with baking soda cleaned up their faces like sparkling new. Autumn loves them just like here mom did! It warms my heart.

Rainbow Brite and her sprite Twink is on the left.
Patty-O-Green and her sprite Lucky is on the right.

That evening Jeremy and Robin had a wedding to attend so we babysat. Autumn's caterwauling and extreme fussing at her parents' departure was quite a show that lasted 30 seconds at the most. Then Autumn was quite content to do some puzzles with me and read some books. In a bit, Frank took Autumn outside and read to her on the swing on the front porch. She really likes her kitties. And a book about them? Even better!

Hi, Grandma. Look! Grandpa is reading to me.

Then they went for tricycle ride. I stayed in because the local edition of Insectia had apparently broadcast that there was a new humanoid food source in the neighborhood and the winged and crawling critters were homing in on me! Autumn is wearing a ruffled skirt that I had brought out with me for her to grow into for next year. She took one look at the skirt and pulled that three-inches-too-big elastic waistband on immediately over whatever she was wearing at the time. The neighbors got to see the price tag as well since there was no opportunity to remove it once she was in motion. I think those lilac, turquoise, and pink color genes are linked to the X chromosome in little girls. Perhaps to both X chromosomes in Autumn's case!

Autumn is off for a tour of the neighborhood with Grandpa.

Of course a gal has to have her color coordinated sunglasses!

Once they returned, Frank texted me that they were in the backyard. I joined them for a brief spell to photograph the action. Autumn played peek-a-boo with Grandpa, climbed up the ladder and went down her slide, and glided a bit on her swings.

"Peek-a boo Grandpa! Can you see me now?"

Frank is quite pleased and yet still cautious with the level of Autumn's gymnastic skills.

"Whee!" Autumn loves the slide.

Frank pauses for a photo, interrupting, for a brief moment, his serious task of pushing.

After all that outdoor activity we brought Autumn in to watch a DVD and quiet down before bath and bed. We could not figure out how to work the TV set-up. Although we selected the correct TV input and could get the DVD to play, we could not for the life of us, select the play option on the DVD menu. We tried and tried to use the remote for the TV or the DVD player. It looked something like one of these – long, thin, and rectangular.

Sample remotes. Jeremy and Robin's looked similar to one of these.

Autumn was very good and did not whine about her show not starting. In fact she kept trying to help by coming to me and handing me the X-box controller.  I said, "No, Sweetie. Thank you, but that is for Daddy's video games." The X-box controller looks like this. Not at all like a DVD or TV remote.

A typical X-box controller. Why would you need two joysticks to start a DVD?

By now Zazu, the bird from The Lion King, is just about driving me crazy demanding over and over and over and over again, in an annoying, squawking, bird voice tinged with a tone of disgust, that I make a selection already. It is time to give up and text the parents for help.

"It is time, please, to make a selection..."

Jeremy talked me through it. Well, it is the X-box controller that needs to be used. And you press the green A button for play. Now isn't that obvious? Twenty-two-month old Autumn knew the right controller. My mistake was in not asking her if she also knew the correct button to press. Oh, and the blue X is for exit. Of course.

Autumn was as good as gold during the show and afterward climbed upstairs willingly to enjoy her bath. She picked out her own pajamas and we put them on her. I darkened her room. Then I
       a) rocked her and watched her eyelids droop
       b) sang to her and felt her relax in my arms
       c) placed her gingerly in her crib
       d) picked her up again when she cried
I repeated a) through d) multiple times. I finally succeeded in getting her to sleep after standing beside her crib with my hand on her back and singing progressively more and more softly. I was eventually able to back out of the room on tip toe while still whispering a song. I plopped my butt on the couch barely a half hour before her mom and dad returned home. Whew! Parenthood is for the young. Perhaps the title of this post instead of Antiques and Babysitting should more appropriately have been Antiques Babysitting.

Pink Panther skills help when retreating from a sleeping toddler.