Post-Xmas Weekend 2015

Saturday, December 26th
Dan and Carrie wanted to take Vivian to the Monterey Bay Aquarium the day after Christmas. I accompanied them but Frank volunteered to stay home. We'd only need one vehicle that way. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is about a 2 to 2½ hour drive south from Livermore. We left somewhere around 10:30 am or so and arrived close to 1:30 pm, hitting a bit of traffic and a slight detour due to an accident along the route. We decided to eat lunch before entering the aquarium and enjoyed a fine meal at the Cannery Row Brewing Company.

Vivian was good spirited but understandably a bit antsy after the long car ride. She fiddled with her mom's necklace while we waited the arrival of our food. Carrie played the role of the patient mom and went along with it, nearly getting strangled in the game. I quietly wondered to myself if I should reach across the table and rescue her from the tangle - or even if I'd be able to quickly enough if she started turning blue. But the food came, the game ended, and Vivian moved on to the more productive task of eating with gusto.

After our meal, Dan and Carrie took Vivian to the restroom while I proceeded out to the lobby. I spent all the time they were busy with Vivian trying to figure out how to open the stroller. I saved face by succeeded just before they rounded the corner. On our way exiting, I took a photo of Dan with Vivian by the restaurant's beautiful Christmas tree.

We got our aquarium tickets and passed through the front lobby about 1:30 pm. The website had stated closing time as 5:00 pm but the official marqueé at the entrance declared it to be 7:00 pm. Marvelous! We'd have another two hours! Great for a young family but this grandma was dubious about her stamina. I thoroughly, utterly, enjoyed watching Vivian's absorbed fascination at each of the displays. I am happy I went along and I had a very good time as an intense observer.Vivian was so into it. She pointed to one fish and said "Nemo", to another and said "Dory" so she was definitely into detail and taking it all in. Carrie kept asking me if I was having fun. That was a loaded question. To me, fun implies a sense of being carefree. Vivian's ability to slither excitedly between the legs of the throng of other visitors in the darkened exhibit halls made it very difficult for me to relax.  I am sufficiently out of practice in these types of situations to be stress free. The last time I experienced them was a generation ago with my own kids.

Several times I would pick her up so she could see into some display window. On one of those occasions as I held her, she plunged her head forward to better see the otters swimming beneath the surface. BONK! She really whacked her head on the thick plate glass window. She was not phased in the least, but I cringed and thought, "Oh, no. Not a huge black and blue bump on my watch!".

I fared better sticking to the photography end of things on this outing. As Vivian charged down a hallway toward another adventure I snapped this photo appropriately captioned by the exhibit title off to the right, "Vanishing Wildlife".

Vivian was mesmerized by many of the display windows.

I was mesmerized by the views and mechanics of just maintaining and running such a place. How long a squeegee must that be to reach the top of those tall windows? Being right next to the bay, how often must those windows be cleaned?

We stayed until about 6:00 pm. I sat up front with Dan in the car on the quiet, serene, ride home. There was one tired kiddo in the backseat with her mama.

Sunday, December 27
Dan and Carrie had wanted to have a date night one evening during their holiday stay with us, but somehow, there was enough going on that it never happened. I suggested they do brunch Sunday morning before their afternoon flight back to SoCal.  Frank and I baby sat while they were "out to brunch". Vivian chowed down her breakfast eagerly. I made her scrambled eggs, nice and fluffy and buttery, to go with the fruit and cereals she had on a snowman-shaped plate. We certainly got good use out of that highchair. There is a cute story behind it so I will digress.

When Vivian first entered the house the Tuesday before Christmas, she was attracted to a coffee table I'd set up with play things. I had a two-step watermelon-painted stool that I'd set by it for her to use as a chair. It was the perfect height for her to play, seated on the lower step and leaning back on the higher step. Frank and Dan both remarked on what a nice set up it was for her. Well, Vivian did sit on the first step but turned around and inserted her legs so they were tucked under the second step. She then leaned backward, toppling over entangled as if wearing the stool in her lap, and whacked her head against the coffee table. This occurred less than ten minutes in the house mind you, and with Dan and Frank both standing right next to her within arm's reach. We whisked away the offending two-step stool, substituting a white and blue Little Tikes single-level step stool. We still have three of these from our kids' younger years. 

Just a few minutes later we sat her for lunch at the kitchen table on a counter height chair we'd used for Alex for years. She leaned over, fell out, and whalloped her head once again, this time against the floor. This convinced us that seating would be an issue this trip and our granddaughter would not develop fond memories of visits to Grandma's and Grandpa's house if we did not run out and buy a high chair.

So while Dan, Carrie, and Vivian had been in San Francisco on Wednesday, Frank and I had dutifully gone to Target to buy a high chair. The cheapest one was $147.98! We would have gladly paid the price - well maybe not gladly but we would have paid it anyway for the sake of our grandchildren - but the chair was huge and did not fold up in any way for storage. Once assembled out of the box you were stuck with it occupying a pretty big chunk of real estate your kitchen - or in the attic later in our case if we'd even manage to get it up there. I prowled the aisles in the clearance section and lo and behold I lucked out and found a taped up box with a highchair in it and a red tag sticker for $27.88. It looked like it had been a repackaged and returned item. But the box picture and verbiage advertised that it folded up to only several inches thick for storage. I snatched it up. A brief doubt did whiz through my mind as to the potential quality of this chair since someone had returned it and it was so cheap but I ignored the thought and we bought the chair.

When I opened the box I found four screws neatly enclosed in a grocery store style Ziploc™ baggie and no assembly pamphlet. Yup, that confirmed the previously purchased suspicion. It unfolded fine, and the four screws worked nicely to attach the four no mar rubber corners on the base. Our purchase was a smart one. After Vivian's first meal in it, Dan removed the tray and on the underside of it was a bit of centrally located crusted on food. Yup, previously owned and previously used. We chuckled. I wonder if another set of grandparents somewhere had gotten it, used it during a family visit, and returned it. If they did - and there may be more than one set of them out there - I say a heartfelt thank you.

  

We played trains with Vivian. She took to this hand crafted wooden set I'd bought when I went with Frank to a model train show. All the cars on the train take up two window sills in our family room so it is nearly eight feet long. I think the elephant was her favorite. She kept reaching for it and saying her very recognizable version of that very long word.

Vivian pushed a two car train all around the track with her own supplied sound effects of "Choo-choo".

After running the train on the tracks she used the wooden rails as a balance beam to walk all around the oval. Thankfully there was no bonked head even with this gymnastic endeavor.

We moved on to doing puzzles till Dan and Carrie returned. 

Dan joined us while Carrie packed.

We took one final picture with the quilt named E-I-E-I-O before leaving for the airport. Vivian's face says "But mama I want you in the picture, too!" (More quilt details are in my December 9th post in my DianeLoves2Quilt blog.) We scooted them all off in time to catch their 3:20 pm flight. It was a great Christmas and a great visit.

Returning home after the drop-off, we searched for, found, and reprogrammed the remotes. I eventually folded up the highchair after Frank and I spent a solid ten minutes trying to find the release so it would bend in on itself. I struggled to recall how the Pack 'n Play that Vivian slept in did its Rube Goldberg transformation into a rectangular prism that would fit not only into its carrying case but also on the lower shelf of the changing table. I do this seldom enough that I have to relearn it each time time; but I met the challenge! We are going to miss Dan and Carrie but especially Vivian. She will have changed so much again before the next time we get to see her. Maybe Frank and I should go bonk our heads against something hard somewhere to ease the transition.