Friday, November 8th
The Disney princess banks are a huge draw at our house. As soon as they come in, the girls make a beeline for them. (So does Alex when he is here.) Notice how the pink Aurora and blue Cinderella complement Lillian's dress. William was otherwise distracted by Snoopy, the dog, who was very patient and actually wallowed in the attention.
The plan was for the kids to play a while and, once they were down for their naps, Dan and Carrie would leave for their drive up to wine country in Napa and Sonoma and their overnight there. Frank and I were slightly apprehensive that William might wake up from his nap and be upset that his mom and dad were not there, but it turned out we were suitable substitutes.
After naps we went for a walk through our neighborhood and along the bike path that parallels the arroyo behind our house. The distance per MapMyWalk was 0.62 miles.
Dinner was meatballs, tater tots, and corn. Lillian and William chowed down. Vivian was a bit more apprehensive.
Post-dinner it looks like my comfy chair-and-a-half is perfect for three grandkids. I do not know what has grabbed their interest. It can't be the TV; it is off in a totally different direction than me taking this photo. Probably the pictures cycling through the screen saver on my computer monitor is fascinating because so many of the photos are of them!
Although the afternoon and evening were uneventful, the night was not. At bedtime Vivian announced she did not want to sleep in the same room as her sister Lillian, as was originally planned. They share a room every night in their own home, but as bunk beds. Here they would be sharing the same double bed. Horrors! William already had his own room in the pack n' play in my sewing room so maybe Vivian thought she deserved the same privilege of a private room. I cannot presume to understand the mind of a 5½ year old. If Lillian's feelings were hurt she did not act so nor say anything. After all, she got to sleep in the Mickey Mouse bedroom. Since Dan and Carrie were away anyway, their king size bed in the guest room would be available and we put Vivian in there. Around 11:00 pm, when Frank and I were about to turn in, I did one last bed check on the kids. William was sound asleep. He stirred briefly when I opened the door a crack to peek in, so I shut it quickly and silently backed away. I looked in the Mickey Mouse room to check on Lillian and my heart skipped a beat when I found the bed empty! I was instantly relieved when I checked next door and saw Lillian had moved into bed with her big sister Vivian – most likely after Vivian was asleep and could not object. All was well.
Then around 1:00 am I heard this plaintive, shrill cry. "Daddy! Daddy!" I jumped out of bed and raced into the guest room where Lillian and Vivian were, and Lillian was sobbing uncontrollably. I climbed next to her in the bed and cradled her in my arms crooning, "There, there it's OK. Daddy is not here but Grandma is. Will Grandma do?" I had not turned on the room light because, hard to believe, but all the ruckus had not wakened Vivian and I wanted to keep it that way. Lillian had let me hold her close in my arms and the cries had softened to snivels. Then the smell hit me. "Lillian, did you throw up?" "Yes", she sobbed. At this point, sleeping Vivian or no sleeping Vivian, I flipped on the lights. Sure enough, those meatballs she had so loved at dinner were on the king-size fitted sheet, the king-size flat sheet, the king-size blanket, the king-size pillowcase, her pajamas, and my nightgown from hugging and rocking her so intimately and unwittingly.
Frank was still asleep at this time. I had been unwilling to yell for help but, since Vivian had not wakened thus far, I hazarded a call for assistance. With Frank's help we stripped Lillian and me and filled the bathtub. She was no longer crying and after I plunked her in the tub she looked up at me with those big round trusting blue eyes and said "Where are the toys?" I plunked a slew of bath toys in the tub and started on the three loads of laundry for the bedding and several preliminary hand-washing iterations for the night clothes. And Vivian? Still asleep even though I had stripped all the bedding except for the fitted sheet she was lying on and the lights in the room for full bright on. Vivian's half was unscathed so I threw a twin size sheet and random clean blanket over Vivian. Since Lillian's output was confined to a relatively small area of the fitted sheet, I covered the spots with a large beach towel. Sweet-smelling and clean out of the bath tub, I toweled off Lillian, put her in a fresh set of pajamas and she contentedly snuggled into the bed in the Mickey Mouse room where she'd started out, and went right back to sleep. I stayed up and cycled through the wash loads.
Saturday, November 9th
Saturday, November 9th
Since we suspected that Dan and Carrie would not be returning until late afternoon or early evening, Frank and I toyed with the idea – and frankly were building up our nerve – to take the kids to Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park which is about a 70-minute, 60-mile ride south, just beyond San Jose, to look at the landscaping and Christmas decorations. We were hesitant to do so once Lilian had upchucked; so secretly we were kind of glad of the excuse to punt. The kids were happy to stay in their pajamas after breakfast and color and craft and explore the toys that are only at Grandma's and Grandpa's house. We got a text from Dan but we did not reveal our previous night's experience. Dan suspected from the brevity that something was suspicious.
After William's nap, Frank changed his diaper. The proof of this is that William's onesie is outside the sweat pants and not inside. Frank requested that I leave it that way and that I text Dan and Carrie the photo as evidence of his involvement. William enjoyed deck time and playing with Snoopy while his two sisters got involved in chalk etchings on the sidewalk encircling our back deck.
The girls and I played the 1-2-3-GO! game that I've had since their dad and their Aunt Robin were little. Both girls were very capable with it. The specialty tray for adding numbers worked great for Lillian, with Vivian reveling in the self-imposed role as her advisor. Funny, but with these activities, since I was doing them with the kids I have no photos, only those I take after the fact. I found this link at boardgamegeek.com that dates the game back to 1970 and describes it:
A child's first game. Fun with numbers. A children's game for two players for teaching numbers up to 6. On their turn the child throws the 1-2-3 dice, and matches it with the appropriate cylinder, then places it on the pins on their track. When the track is finished, the player wins. There is also an advanced version with a normal 6-sided dice, and the child has to combine cylinder shapes to cover the appropriate number of pins. There is a special plastic board to enable them to do this.
Frank had had the foresight to spot an ABC television show broadcast in early November that was an on-stage performance of the Little Mermaid combined with projected large screen scenes directly from the animated movie. It was titled The Little Mermaid Live! and briefly described in Wikipedia as:
Although the show was rather long – over two hours – Vivian and Lillian stayed raptly engaged. We had them watch it divided into two sittings.AuliÊ»i Cravalho stars as Princess Ariel, alongside Queen Latifah, Shaggy, John Stamos, Amber Riley and Graham Phillips. The hybrid format special was performed in front of a live audience on the Disney lot, where the film was projected on a giant projection surface and interwoven with live musical performances of songs from the film and the Broadway stage version.
William preferred floor action on, in, and around Snoopy's bed while the show was on. If he was not harassing Snoopy, his favorite activity while he was here was playing with a bowl of decorative straw ball ornaments. They were everywhere on our first level ... kitchen, family room, living room, closet... some even migrated to the deck. Alert to parents: cheap toy – $2.99 at Walmart.
Dan and Carrie got back in time for a dinner of spaghetti with sausages. Then it was baths and bedtime books.
Sunday, November 10th
Frank and I picked up Alex from his home in San Ramon. Dan and family met us at the local Granada Bowl in Livermore for Alex's weekly ritual of bowling. Frank and I normally bowl with him at Earl Anthony's in Dublin, but the Livermore alley is only a few blocks from our house and required less car time for the kids.
William carried that bowling ball the way over to the ramp to push it down. He only occasionally dropped it.
Vivian surveys her aim after she released the ball.
Alex poses with his nephew, William and two nieces, Vivian and Lillian.
After one extremely competitive game, here are the scores.
But the competition was not over. BattleBots is an American robot combat television series that Frank enjoys watching. For his November 10th birthday, I'd bought him a battery powered, remote-controlled in-home version of the game, modeled after and based on the popular television series. It even had smash hammers at opposite corners of the playing field. Although there were no rising saw blades or spiraling edge screws to further lay waste the opponent, images of such imminent punishing hazards were there to strike potential fear. Later that day, Frank and Dan went toe to toe, or perhaps head to head or whatever robot part you choose, for mutual attacking in a fierce game within the confines of a plastic barricaded arena.
There was no defining winner. The game was called by Carrie for excessive noise level during sacred nap time. The father-son bonding moved on to football-viewing where the noise level could be controlled by a TV remote. And, after nap time, a third generation male joined in the ceremonial Sunday game watching.
Other tackles rounded out the experience with Lillian, William, and Snoopy. I would call this "piling on", wouldn't you?
Shortly after dinner I handed out some early Christmas gifts. Each of the girls got a soft plush velour doll dressed in a velvet dress with hair color that matched their own. True, you cannot see Vivian's and Lillian's hair because they are each wearing an Elf or a Santa hat I knitted for them.
I'd knitted three Santa hats and three Elf hats for the family. I explained that since there were six hats for a family of five, Dan and Carrie could each also wear one. I outline and diagrammed this approach in my November 4th DianeLoves2Quilt blog post about making the hats and potential family configurations for wearing them. Dan was not so keen on the idea of adult participation.
Aside from a early partial Christmas, we had Frank make a wish and blow out a candle for his birthday. The candle was tucked into a mini-cupcake.
Monday November 11th
On our final day of the visit, I packed them a lunch and Dan, Carrie, and the kids took a ride up to the top of Mount Diablo which offers a widespread view of the area per the Mount Diablo Wikipedia link:
Sentinel Dome in Yosemite National Park is visible. Eight bridges are visible, from west to east: San Mateo, Bay, Golden Gate, San Rafael, Carquinez, Benicia, Antioch, and Rio Vista.
They sent back this photo from the observation deck – more pictures are available in Carrie'sNovember 21st blog post. I was bemused to see the two dolls had summited it, too.
After they returned and were into the final throes of packing up to leave, Grandpa made sure William saw the model train layout in the garage.
Even in the last minutes of their visit, it is proven once again that 19-month-olds do not need toys. A basket to climb into, a blanket to climb under, and a recliner chair to climb on will satisfy William's hankering for exploring.
Frank and I followed them to the Oakland airport for their return flight. We needed two vehicles even though they and three car seats all fit in one. There had to be a second driver to bring the car they had filled to capacity back to Livermore! It was a great visit. Carrie hinted at perhaps making it an annual tradition. Frank and I would be up for that.
It was fun to read about your time with our kiddos. It was a good trip. We are definitely hoping to make it an annual excursion!
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