Grandparenting 101

When I tell people that we are keeping our grandkids for up to  10 days I'm often met with disbelief that we have then for that long of a stretch. We live close - but it's still a 4 hour hike, well if you drive straight. On the other hand if you meander up the coast, stop for dinner, do a little shopping AND take the ferry it's a bit longer.  So doing a weekend is doable but it's a crunch. The reason we take them for a week and a half is because Brandi is taking care of them herself and deserves a break and and a full week at the sitters is expensive so  we try really hard to cover school breaks. I know there's plenty of kids that spend all the school vacations at the sitters or daycare but if there's another option, why not? When we take them they can hang in pajamas, dawdle around - and play all day. And this is why we are here at the end of t he day, to see our grandkids on a regular basis, we wanted to be Nana and Popppop, not just two faces on a screen. 

C and D are on spring break, this time around is a little different. Since we have them pretty often I use a lot of vacation time up driving, etc.... and there's really no reason for it. David is semi-retired and is more than capable of taking care of them. They're six now so they can amuse themselves, you can take them with you and they are both about 95% independent in the bathroom department. We have the house set up so there's plenty for them to do - swings and a fenced in yard, two rambunctious and overly friendly dogs to run about with. We have an alcove behind the stairs that serves as a playroom - I buy toys off of FB marketplace to furnish it. It's pretty cheap and since they're not here all the time when they outgrow the toys I just donate them to Goodwill and start again. They have thier own beds, crayons, playdough, tub toys - so far we've never heard "there's nothing to do!". The loft which is my home office is the most popular place in the house with the miniture sectional couch, tiny wall mounted flat screen and low table and cube seats for coloring and rolling playdough. What's not to like!

I worked from home 3 days this week, I have my regular schedule of two days home plus the 8 hour Zoom training for the next 4 weeks on Thursday. On Wednesday C came up and I sent her down. she came up again, asked for a drink. Toast. Could she watch TV? did I like Sharks?Started a long winded conversation which included a bazillion questions. I told her to go downstairs because i was working. She then said she didn't see me working since I was talking to her. We both went downstairs and rousted Poppop out of bed with me explaining if this continued I would be packing My toys and going into the office. This went well for a few hours but then  they announced it was no longer Nana's turn to be in the Fun Home Office and I got kicked dowstairs since we are supposed to share Nana! Thursday David packed them up and they went to  visit Aunt Kim and Uncle Steve in Seaside - they rode the carasol, got toy kttens that meowed, played on the beach and made a friend, petted PIggles thier favorite little dog, and fell into bed exhausted after their bath. They've also been to Lowe's, the Tractor Supply and Shop&SAve - they're not picky. 

But all in all, the week has gone very well, we actuallly got stuff done this week. The weather has been awful the past two days - ugh. Rain, hail, wind, sun, fog, temp goes up, temp goes down . They have taken over the upstairs which is fine, not much to do today. We did go to Farmhouse Coffee this morning to see the Easter Bunny which was a hit. Then they got italian sodas and unicorn cupcakes, they attracted the attention of t wo women in thier mid-80's and showed off doing splits before I could stop them ( I looked at one of the women and said "Ok, your turn!" and she replied only if she got another hip replaced, LOL!). But aside from the spontaneous splits they behave well in public and enjoy going out. They head home tomorrow, Monday is school for them and work for me, at the end you can tell they're starting to miss home and Mommy. Brandi has gotten a few workfree/childfree days to herself and that's the other reason we do this, everyone needs a little time to themselves. Next up is Easter, they'll be coming down again this year. We do Easter dinner the night before and then Easter we do the hunt and a big brunch with Kim and Steve - I can't wait!