When Grandpas Come to Visit {part 2}

Hey Dad! Remember when you came to our house for a visit? Let's do it again sometime, ok?

At the B & O Railroad Museum Oliver loved the roundhouse. At the first sight of all of those train cars in one place he gasped and whispered "WOW!"

Grandma Min sent two t-shirts, a froggy rain jacket, and some monkey gloves for Grandpa to deliver to his little friend, who promptly put them on and refused to take them off for hours.

We drove into D.C. for the sole purpose of trying out Ollie's Trolley, which is apparently home to the best burgers in D.C. After eating one, I can honestly say that any other burger, anywhere, has some pretty stiff competition.

We walked around the mall, where Dad dragged us into the toy store to play. 

And he introduced us to my current favorite sport: Duckpin bowling. 

Thanks again for burgers, crabs, train museums, Ikea visits, bowling, endlessly playing with Oliver J., and anything else that I'm forgetting at the moment. You make a pretty great house guest!

Ollie vs the Flatware Drawer

We let Oliver help around the house when he wants to. 

Let him think work is a game, maybe even a little bit fun? 

I'm sure he'll find out the hard truth about chores one day, but we'll let him live in innocence for just a while longer...

But not too much longer. After all, I'm not in the business of having babies just for the sweet, cuddly meatloaf you get in the beginning! 

I have bigger dreams! I want the by-product of babies.

No, not mountains of human excrement, don't be silly!

You know what I'm talking about.

Indentured servants!!!

That's the real miracle of motherhood!

*cue maniacal laughter*

Now that you know my truest intentions, I'll bow out gracefully, and leave you with this photo of Oliver: indentured servant in training:

Left to His Own Devices: Candy...part two.

You would have thought that after his last candy binge we might have learned.

We didn't.

It was the same old story.

Jesse and I were upstairs studying and preparing Sunday lessons and suddenly I noticed an acute absense of noise.

"Do you know where Oliver is? I can't hear him." I said to Jesse.

He didn't.

"He's probably downstairs eating candy." I said.

I thought I was joking...

Turns out, my joke wasn't very funny.

It also turns out that Oliver can open sealed wrappers.

Super.

How I spent my Christmas Money: Official Report

Dearest Grandma and Grandpa,

I sort of went IKEA crazy while my dad was here.

He happened to rent a car big enough to pick up all the things I managed to find logical enough reasons to buy.

He took me to Ikea...twice! We stopped at the Baltimore Ikea one day where we managed to find the EXACT shelving unit I was looking for in the "As Is" section for fifty dollars instead of eighty.

That, my friends, was very lucky!

While we were there, I decided that I wanted to use my Christmas Cash to purchase Ikea's Raskog kitchen cart in blue...because it is useful, and whimsical, and the perfect size and shape for my laundry...er...nook under the stairs.

photo credit

Except....horror of horrors, it was out of stock!

Dad said, "That's ok. We can go to the other Ikea tomorrow." Because he's the best dad in the whole world.

The next day we stopped in College Park on our way home from DC! I got my beloved cart, and we headed for home. Since then, I feel happy every time I open the door to do laundry! And that's a big deal.


Allow me to illustrate:

Before

After

(Please excuse the photo bomb from my Tim Burton Giraffe magnet.)

 See what I mean? Now I can organize cleaning and laundry supplies in one place. Things don't fall off of or through the shelf like they used to, and I can wheel this baby out easily anytime I feel like I want to.

So thank you for my new laundry cart!

Love, 

Your darling granddaughter Della

PS: If you are wondering how the other Christmas money in our home has been spent, I can only say that Jesse and Oliver are hoarding theirs.

I'm always the first to breakdown and spend.

A Birthday Message From My Nieces and Nephews:

Dear Aunt Della,
We think that you are swella,
You definitely don't smella!

We are sure that you are "bella"!
So we wrote this card to tella...
You Happy Birthday Della!

Also worth mentioning:

As I was putting Oliver to bed, he crawled into my lap (he likes to "be wike a baby") and sang the Happy Birthday song to me...FIVE TIMES...in his sweet little Oliver J. voice.

(well, actually, one of them was to Andre, because that is who Oliver sings the Happy Birthday song to every other time that it may randomly pop into his head...but I'm over it. Andre is just that cool. I can accept that, even on my birthday).

I'm so thankful for the little people in my life, and even a bunch of the big ones!

I really am the luckiest!

Left to His Own Devices: Candy

Oliver managed to empty and consume every Kiss in that candy cane in the five minutes that it took Jesse to print some study materials in another room.

Jesse said that he realized that it had gotten quiet...too quiet. But by the time he got down to investigate, the damage was already done.

When Grandpas Come to Visit...

 It makes us happy.

My dad came for a visit early this month.

A "Just Because" sort of visit that we have been anticipating since October.

He arrived in the middle of the night.

Oliver woke up to find him sleeping nearby, and they played all morning.

cars, trains, books, animals... you name it, they did it. 

It was really quite magical.

Left To His Own Devices: Skype

This is what it looks like when the little one commandeers your computer and hijacks your skype session:

 I was only gone for a few seconds!

I guess he thought he needed to talk to Heather more than I did.

Who could blame him?

Ollie's World

Cars, trains, a sippy cup, a bunny blanket, and a froggy backpack are all it takes to be happy around here.