our recent weekend at the kids -

    In THIS posting, I had told you that we were headed to visit our 'out of state "kids" ' for the weekend. And then in THIS one, I had told you about the restaurant we had taken them to. You knew that at some point in time I would be telling you more about our weekend there, didn't you?  Seeings how I am going to be printing off all of the postings about Analyse, putting them in a note book, and presenting it to her around her twentieth birthday or so, I need to record things. o;-p  (That's my reasoning, and yes, I'm sticking to it!!)
    It was after eleven p.m. when we got there Fri. night, so she of course was sound asleep. But whether they believe it or not, we did want to see our adult "kids" too (o;-p). And then there was the fact that we had the mattress and box springs as well as Analyse's chair in the back end of Brandon's open pick-up truck we were borrowing. And we weren't comfortable with the idea of leaving them sitting thus overnight in the hotel's parking lot. So we did go there Fri. evening before going back and crashing on our huge bed at the hotel.
   We slept in Sat. morning, partly just enjoying the bliss of being away. But that also meant that we didn't get to their place till around eleven. Cyndi and her mom were out back, so I stopped and chatted with them while Brian headed on in and up. Byron was changing Analyse's diaper when I entered her room, and Brian was standing close by chatting with her. She craned her head to see who had walked in, and then with the biggest of grins she almost shouted "Ga...ma!!!". Oh the joy that filled my heart!
   Byron stood her up to pull her pants up and she started craning around him to talk to me. She was excitedly pointing at Brian and telling me, "Pappy!! something, something something." With a smile I confirmed that "yes, grandpa was there too". Byron explained that she now willingly called him "papa" (before, she'd occasionally say it, but never where he could hear her ;-p) and she was now calling Cyndi's dad "pappy".
    The glow on Brian's face told me how much he was enjoying hearing her call him that! It was glowing and beaming folks!!! I am not the only one lovin this being a grandparent stuff! ;-)
     As soon as Byron got her pants most of the way up, she started lunging for me. What joy!!!
    In the two months since Christmas, she had not only grown taller, her hair had grown quite a bit longer and clearly showed it's natural curliness (:-]), she had added numerous words to her vocabulary, her walking and running had gained great speeds, and while we hadn't thought it possible, she truly was even cuter!
   A few of her new vocabulary words besides "pappy!" were, "up" (a word that she doesn't seem to realize can only be said once. Her version is up, Up, UP!!" ;-p), "Elmo", "eat", "hot, hot, hot" (which is always accompanied by a blowing sound and the fanning of her hands while arching her back backwards :-p), and "nnt, nnt" which means 'night night'.
   The absolutely amazing (at least to me) part was, that she will tip her head sideways and say 'nnt nnt' when she is ready for a nap. Sometimes if you don't catch on all of the way, she will go pull one of her blankies out of her crib and tell you again while hugging the blanket. Tis best to follow her lead concerning naps! Otherwise, w-el-l, after a bit she becomes most unpleasant, and then of course does not want to take a nap. But I just found the fact that this twenty month old was letting you know when she was ready for a nap, amazing. Let's just say that her daddy was NEVER like that. nope. nope. nope.
    Sat. evening Cyndi's mom hosted dinner for all of us. After words Analyse wandered over to where her toys are. Soon after she brought me this box set of match-up cards. I asked her if she was suppose to have these, and Connie (Cyndi's mom) nodded yes at me with a big grin. I had no idea how amazed and impressed I was about to become! She pulled out the top card, said the name of the 'Sesame Street' (TM) character pictured on it, then pulled out another card. She looked back and forth, shook her head no and tossed it on the floor. I looked up, Connie was still smiling, so I let her continue. Which she did, until she'd pulled out the correct match. She then seemed to triple check it, before excitedly proclaiming the characters name, turned and with a "one, two" laid the cards on the table by Connie. Once all of the cards were out of the box, she kept hold of the last one and started scanning the ones on the floor looking for it's mate. Oh how her eyes would lite up, her face would beam, and ever so excitedly she'd exclaim the characters name when, after triple checking the cards, she was sure she'd found a match. And then every time they would "one, two" be presented to Connie. Like I said, I was wowed! She's doing this at twenty months old!!
     She had been a big fan of "Yo Gabba Gabba"(TM). She has now added "Elmo"(TM) to that. It is ever so fun to watch her do the 'Hokey Pokey' with the dancing Elmo (TM) doll Cyndi had given her at Christmas. And we learned that we weren't only suppose to watch her, we're suppose to do it too! ! ! ;-p
    Monday morning en-route to their house, we had stopped at the near by grocery store. As we pulled in, Cyndi and Analyse were there putting things into their car (Byron was still in the store) and Analyse recognized us. :-)
     When telling you about this years Christmas with our "kids", I had shared with all of you how Analyse liked to write. She still does. Big time. With her left hand. With her right hand. With both hands at the same time - doing the exact same 'circles' at the same time! And after awhile she will hand you the pencil or crayon wanting you to draw something for her. So One time Brian drew her a bunny. And he talked his way through it. "Circle, Circle, Circle...." When he got done she smiled warmly up at him. He handed her the pencil and said, "now you do it". She stared very intently at him for a minute, and then word verbatim repeated his instructions while drawing her version of 'circles', etc.. He said he was absolutely blown away!!! !! !!
    When you ask Analyse who Analyse is, she excitedly answers "That's me!" while pointing at herself. She can also spell out her name. In-fact, she can write the "A's" in it, the rest isn't as recognizable,   yet.
    She can not only write with both hands, even at the same time, but also feed herself with either hand, or both. The two spoon method was a great method to use on the ice cream! ;-p
    While she can and does use both hands, she is more likely to pick a pencil or spoon up with her left hand first. Tis possible that she'll be a 'lefty'. Her daddy is. And an uncle. ... Time will tell.
    Cyndi had made cake balls and requested that I dip them in melted choc. for her. I love doing such things for her! Besides, that would keep me busy so hopefully Analyse and Brian could have more one on one time. Oh how I enjoyed listening in on their banter and laughs!!! I also found it ever so cute that occasionally Analyse would come in and tell me a-l-l about what her and "pappy" were doing. :-p
    {Once I was done dipping all of the cake balls, I still had choc. chips left, and there was a big container of pretzel sticks sitting on the counter, so a couple dozen of them got dipped too!)

    Analyse was about six to nine months old (?) when this picture of her, "pappy" and his hat had been taken.

     Brian liked it so much that he wants to do a progression of such pictures as she grows up. Here then is the version of her at twenty months old.

    Thank-you for 'listening' as I again shared about our adorable albeit impy grand daughter. ;-)  ... .... And to think that there is another grand child on the way. We are SO-o-o blessed!!!