While We Were Away (written by Babi)

Watching The Grandkids While the Parents Celebrate 15 Years of Marriage, in Cancun

2019-02-22, Day 1 of 5

So, this go round of watching the grandkids while the parents finally have some couples time will, I anticipate, be easier than when the kids were younger. Camden and Carter are 6 in kindergarten, and Olivia is 8 in second grade. Just having free time for the grandparents while the kids are in school is a big advantage. I scheduled myself an hour facial on day one (Woo Hoo!) after I went to hear the boys perform their storytelling competition at school.

Camden really got in to it. He did a lot of animation as he told his story about the Nightmare in the Closet. Carter, at the last minute, decided to read from his Hungry Caterpillar book, just in case he forgot his lines, which was fine. Some of the other kids read their stories too. Olivia got permission to come watch with me too.

George slept through it as he had the task of driving the parents to the airport, leaving at 4:30 a.m.. He came back with Polish Kolaczki for all of us. The kids didn’t like them. Actually, I thought they were sort of dry…not like the ones I’ve had in Chicagoland.

To start the morning, Olivia took two bites of her Captain Crunch Cereal and tossed the rest. Immediately George went into his lecture about the starving children in Africa. When I was growing up, it was the children in China.

We were elated that Chelsea took London, the dog, to the groomer the day before they left so London is smelling sweet, feels soft and is wearing a bandana.

George and I both have our fingers crossed that we don’t catch Strep Throat from the kids. All three are on antibiotics so hopefully we’ll be safe. And I am running on a tad less energy than usual, just having finished 10 days of antibiotics for pneumonia, so no, I don’t think we’ll be taking the kids sledding…and not with George’s fractured wrist recovery.

So, I was at my facial; George was in charge of getting the boys from the 12:10 p.m. bus around the block. Well, we had a communication mix up and George went to the school to get the boys. And, usually if the parent is not there to get the kindergartener, the bus driver takes the kids back to the school. But in this case, a neighbor (who also has twins) gave the boys a ride home. The boys said they knew her so they agreed to have her give them a ride home.  But, no one was home. The boys let themselves in through the “password” door in the backyard and I found them on their ipad in the living room. I was home shortly after. Oh geez. We’re all safe and sound now. Glad this isn’t southside Chicago!

And, to be fair to George, yesterday, Derek left for work. Chelsea was already gone to help a surgery patient. I thought Derek said he fed the kids breakfast but as it turned out, he had only fed the dog. So I sent all three kids to the bus stop with no breakfast! Not sure why they didn’t say anything. One of them asked for some herbal tea but no one mentioned they didn’t have breakfast. But, Chelsea was returning from surgery while the kids were waiting for the bus and Chelsea happened to bring the kids breakfast burritos that she got from work. She gave them to the kids at the bus stop. The kids were happy.

I’d say that no one should hire us to watch their kids. Luckily these kids are smart, they don’t panic, and they know the ropes, most definitely better than we do! YIKES!

Liv had a play date at a friend’s house. We picked her up at 5:30 p.m. and headed to Chili’s Restaurant for dinner (I had a gift card I had won), but it was packed with a 45 minute wait so the kids voted for Noodles & Co. They all ordered kids meals and ate everything!

So, we made it through day 1. Only one “home alone” moment.

2019-02-23, Day 2 of 5

Breakfast of champions: pancakes and sausage.

The tennis wore me out more than the kids. Or maybe it was the trip to Costco. I didn’t really inventory the 3 refrigerators before we went so now everything is really full. We’ll work at it. Liv wanted the Caesar Chicken Salad (Carter helped) and Camden devoured the whole cheese pizza himself.  I find that amazing.

The kids did great at Tennis. What a deal! And so close to home!

We filled the salt grinder with regular salt and couldn’t understand why it was pouring out the bottom…dah. Papou fixed it.

I slept in the parents’ bed last night (removed the cushy thing) and it is still way too high for me. I feel like I’m going off a ski jump when I try to get down.

The kids played with some neighbor friends in the afternoon, we had dinner, then headed over to Jump Time. To me it seems like a bacteria/virus infested incubator. I shiver to think what they picked up there. I made them all wash their hands with soap or use a hand wipe when we were leaving, and I threw them all in the shower to clean them from head to toe. I had three bananas in the car for the ride home and at first Camden said he didn’t like bananas but I think he was so hungry that he ate it anyway…and then said he LOVED it and wanted another one when he got home!

Carter’s nose is running a bit; hate to think what is ahead. I will watch him and all three closely. Hopefully the antibiotic will help.

All the kids are showered. I braided Liv’s hair in 4 wet braids so she’ll have wavy hair tomorrow. I think they will sleep well tonight after all that jumping!

So, we all survived Saturday…well, for some stupid reason George was near the jumping room with the balls and he reached to get the ball and fell on his newly repaired hand. Hopefully he’s OK. At least the floor gives (trampoline).

I scheduled myself a massage for Monday. I made my appointment at 10 so I won’t miss the boys on the bus drop! It’s kind of luxurious to have a facial AND a massage four days apart but hey, I’m treating myself!

2019-02-24, Day 3 of 5

The kids slept quite late (worn out from Jump Time) and when they woke up, they went downstairs to watch TV so George and I really got to sleep in (9 a.m. for me). George is funny. When he gets into a routine or has a system, he doesn’t like it to change. He loves his bed downstairs but I wanted to sleep upstairs in case any of the kids come looking for Mom and Dad in the night. So I’m upstairs, and George is downstairs. It’s like we’re dating again…we spend time all day together and then go our separate ways. J  It’s probably better for him because I am coughing a lot.

Every day London gets a walk with George, and, I’m sorry to say, a lot of free scraps under the table during meals. I try to stop George on the latter but to no avail. George is also on a mission to make the kids hang up their coats and put away their shoes. They are getting the hang of it.

French Toast and bacon for breakfast…but they also got to the muffins from Costco so they weren’t that hungry. With the left over bacon I made BLTPs (I learned the P is for pickle) for the kids to snack on before Church. Of course Camden is a BL only, and no mayo for him!

We thought we’d take a nap while the kids are at Church but I started emptying wastebaskets, running some laundry, cleaning the dishes. Chelsea, I’m going to leave that cash you left for us, to be for you to hire someone to come mop and clean when you get back. I think all my energy is going to cooking, laundry and monitoring homework. Well, that’s my excuse…you know I don’t like cleaning floors and bathrooms!

Annie and Tyler kidnapped the kids after Church so we got a long afternoon to lay low. Thanks Thorsteds!

My goal is to try to get Liv to organize her drawers with me. The boys and I worked on theirs a little. We’ll see how far I get with that goal. [10 p.m…not making much progress so far!]

Tonight is the Oscars. I thought Liv might like watching the actresses in their pretty dresses on the Red Carpet with me. Well, she was only interested for about 10 minutes. Carter watched the longest while we played Uno. I think Camden found the ipad instead.

The boys read their books from school. Liv didn’t really want to perform her song for us; she said she practiced by herself. I’ll try to get her to practice before her lesson tomorrow after school. I kind of think we blew off a lot of practicing…not much piano, no violin. I think we’re slipping on the job.

For bedtime stories, we have been looking at the Instagram pictures you’ve been posting and we talk about the fun stuff you guys are doing. They love seeing your posts!

OK. I’m off to bed. George said he’d go for a massage with me if they can fit him in so we’ll see what I can arrange. I left them a message since they are closed on Sunday.

2019-02-25, Day 4 of 5

The kids woke us up in scary Halloween costumes. Change of pace from SunRiver! Kids were happy with Eggo Waffles for breakfast before school.

After we got them off to the bus, I went for an hour massage and it was so wonderful that I booked an hour tomorrow for George. (Couldn’t fit us both in today)

This time we remembered to get the boys from the bus at 12:10 p.m. and they wanted Arby’s for lunch. So we grabbed the videos that needed to be returned to the library, and headed to Arby’s. Camden wanted “black turkey”. It didn’t occur to me that he was referring to roast beef. Luckily I ordered a roast beef sandwich so I added some to his turkey happy meal. Carter wanted chicken nuggets.

So then it was off to the library and the kids convinced us that the Christopher Robin video that said “2 discs” only came with one. So I told the librarian when we got there, but came home and found the other one in the Blu-Ray player, so George circled back on his way to pick up Liv from school (she asked if he would pick her up instead of riding the bus so he did).

I got Liv to her Vocal group, George has been walking the dog at LEAST once/day. We’re getting about 3 eggs/day.

The kids went to Derek’s parents’ house for dinner while we went out with my friend Zina (her husband got sick). Zina had picked Texas Roadhouse Restaurant because her hubby doesn’t like to try different stuff, and then he didn’t come so we could have gone to one of the places Chelsea suggested. Oh well. Next time.

The kids had homemade waffles for dinner and later popcorn at Steve and Diane’s house. When we got there to pick up the kids, Carter was putting together a United States of America puzzle. The kids wondered if they could spend the night there (we’re probably too hard on them) but I said no because Liv has an early violin lesson, etc.

The bedtime story was again talking about the pictures Mom posted on Instagram. The kids thought they were cool. I told them those ancient ruins were from the time of the Book of Mormon…is that sort of true?

One more day to go. The kids are well-adjusted and doing well.

2019-02-26, Day 5 of 5

Last night was a bit of musical beds. Sometime in the night, Liv came to my bedside (her parents’ bed) and said she had a bad dream. I let her come snuggle with me and promptly fell sweetly asleep, but I did not. I tossed and turned and finally grabbed my book at 5 a.m. and went in the kitchen with a blanket and read a few more chapters. Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens is SO good. If I weren’t so busy I’d probably be reading it day and night until I finished it. So at 5 a.m. I was at a part where this poor “Marsh Girl” thinks a city boy loves her, but then finds out he is engaged to be married to a blonde in town. He was a two-timer. Sad and tired again, I decided to crawl in bed with George downstairs for the remainder of the morning until it was time to get the kids off to school. Low and behold, George was two-timing me with a redhead! London was sleeping, in the bed, with George! I kicked London out (clearly I was the alpha woman) and snuggled until my alarm went off, probably an hour or so later.

This is the busiest of days. I needed to get Liv to her violin lesson at 8:25 a.m. then drive her to school. George walked the boys to the bus with his redhead. I have to say that it was cool to hear Liv play with her teacher accompanying her on either violin or piano. I don’t think I really got Liv to practice enough, the days we’ve been in charge, but I guess she made it through her lesson.

Liv asked if I would buy her an Octopus keychain. I guess it’s a little stuffed animal on a keychain. She rallied that she had cleaned up the living room, hadn’t fought with her brothers, etc. So, I told her about the Maria Kondo drawer organizing system and that if I had time, I would try to go through some of her drawers today to see if I could arrange them better for her. I said that maybe if she could keep them like that for a few weeks, I would get her the Octopus keychain. I guess I’m going to have to strike a similar deal with the boys as well.

George went for his massage at 10:15 a.m.. I thought Ashley, at Amara, was particularly good with lossening up tight shoulders and neck so I made him go too. He just came back and said, “How can you enjoy that? It hurt!” She told him he should come back for 90 min or 2 hours to be able to do all the work he needs. She did his back, hamstrings and calves but she said he really needs to get the front pecks done, etc. He is SO SO tight. I think with time, and regular massage, he will begin to work out some of that tightness and tension.

And while he was getting his massage, I went through Olivia’s drawers. I wanted to do it WITH her, but there just isn’t any time. Maybe if I get her started, and show her how I roll the clothes, perhaps she can maintain it for a while at least.

When the boys got home from school, we ate, did reading, they claimed they played their piano in the morning before school but I’m not sure. Then we went through all their drawers and they liked rolling their clothes. We’ll see how the new arrangement works for them and for how long.

I got Liv from the bus and took her to dance. I think she’s the best one in the class. She didn’t want to go but she seemed to enjoy it while she was there.

When we went to Costco a few days ago, Liv pointed something out to me that she ate at a friend’s house, so I bought it and prepared it tonight. It was pork schnitzel German style. The kids (well maybe not our bacon-eating Camden) gobbled it up. They LOVED it and ate so much I couldn’t believe it. George and I liked it too. I served it both with noodles and mashed potatoes, plus artichokes and fruit. Camden ate mostly noodles and strawberries.

I showed Liv how I arranged her drawers and she actually seemed pretty excited about it! She quickly did an inventory of her clothes and pulled out things that didn’t fit or she didn’t want anymore that we could give away. I promised her that if she could keep her drawers in order (same for the boys) until she comes to St. George on March 8^th, I would give her the money for her octopus key clip. I also said that Papou and I would buy some eggs from the kids’ chickens to take home. They were excited about that.

It’s been a great time with the kids. I like being an intimate part of their day-to-day activities. I’ll be glad to be home too, but it sure was wonderful to be invited to partake in a slice of these awesome kids’ lives. I thank Derek and Chelsea for entrusting these precious humans to us.