Hello on Sunday

Dear Friends,

I am still in the “taking care of the grandchild” mode. I must admit that it was okay to wake up today to the solitude in a house, instead of checking the baby monitor while having my first cup of coffee. Of course, we both missed our grandchild as soon as we left North Tewksbury at 9 AM on Saturday. Yes, I do miss that smile when I rescue him from his crib in the morning. I will miss putting him down for his naps, and at bed time, and the way that he doesn’t fight going to sleep. I was with Max longer than Linda during this baby sitting gig, and not once did he object when we decided to put him in his crib for some needed rest for him and his grandparents. In my e-mails, I keep on saying how wonderful he is even at the touch, and grab, etc. toddler age. If you were with him for the over a week, you would know what I am talking about.

When we left Tewksbury on Saturday, we went right by the exit to get on the Massachusetts Turnpike. We drove about 20 minutes past the exit to the Wrentham Outlets. Linda went to only one store, and shopped for over an hour. When we arrived at the Vera Bradley store, there was a line out front. An attendant was letting one person in when one person exited the store.
As we left the Outlets, Linda was almost in tears because she wanted to go to all of her favorite stores in the place, but couldn’t do so. We needed to get home so that I could take a nap in preparation for the Saturday Night house party which we were invited to.

The party went very well. There was much food, fun, and merriment before the party broke up and we headed home. The hosts didn’t get the message that our grandchild would not be at the party. They were really looking forward to seeing Max. They will see him when we baby sit once again around the New Year’s time frame.
If Max was there, there were so many objects within his grasp that we would have been chasing him and protecting all the objects that he could touch. I walk into the host’s great room where they have their main Christmas tree. Max would have taken down at least 20 to 30 decorations which were in his grasping range.
The host had Christmas Candles and decorations on every coffee table. I would have to have put handcuffs on Max because he would have played with the objects. Now this doesn’t sound too harmless, but then he liked to bang the objects on the table too. This too doesn’t sound bad, but one of their tables has a glass top. At our house, Linda put runners on the coffee table, and maybe a Christmas book. He liked to pull the runner off of the table including whatever objects were on the table runner.
The hosts have two daughters so they didn’t go through what a male toddler was like when their children were growing up. My Dalton friend and I firmly believe that boys and girls are wired differently. He said that his granddaughter would just look at the Christmas tree, and observe how beautiful it was when it was all lit up. Max wanted to feel the beauty by not just looking, but grabbing everything that he could reach. At his home, Max liked to pull the cord out of the socket so that the lights would go off on the tree.
All this stuff which Max does sounds so negative, but it is what toddlers do. As parents, you have to be quick, and nimble, and have a set of eyes in the back of your head. Most of us baby boomers lack those skills.
While at the party we were discussing Healthcare, Social Security, and which body parts aren’t working so great. These types of conversations weren’t part of our daily vocabulary when we were in our 20’s and 30’s. We were trying to figure out where the next party was.

One of the couples, who would normally have been at the party, called to wish everyone a “Merry Christmas”. This is the couple whose daughter gave birth to twins a couple of weeks ago. We didn’t realize that the new parents lived in Stoneham which isn’t too far from where Kevin and Kyla live. Linda and I will have to stop in for a visit when we are in North Tewksbury.

The Curley’s aren’t leaving the house today. We are going to treat it like a snow day. I am going to set up a two person amount of beef stew in our crock pot. Linda bought a loaf of Italian Bread to soak up the juices. I am going to take an early afternoon nap, and wake up, go into my man cave, and watch the Patriot game which starts at 4:15 PM in a cold, snowy, and windy Chicago.
I will come up stairs at half time for some beef stew. After the Patriot game is over, I will get ready for Sunday night football.
Linda told me last night that she wants to sleep until noon. I am not sure if I could be that quiet for so many hours.
It is raining out right now, and the wind is blowing. The couple inches of snow on the ground will be gone in no time at all. Linda and I would rather see snow than rain.

We have an extremely busy week coming up. Either one or both of us are out every night of the upcoming week. For me, some are meetings, others our Christmas parties which we will go as a couple, and some are parties with Linda and her girlfriends.
We still haven’t figured out how we are going to make it through the four parties, one of which is a fund raiser, which take place this coming Saturday.

Well, I have to out to the driveway, and get the Boston Globe, and the Berkshire Eagle. My first quiet activity, after I set up the beef stew, is to read the newspapers. I am really hoping that we don’t get any telephone calls from anyone until after Linda wakes up.

Have a great Sunday.
Talk to you soon. The Curley Lad