Tuesdays with Lauren

This week is Spring Break, therefore no Bible Study Fellowship.  I might have gone ahead and taken Lauren for the day if it weren't for two things.  1) I'm starting my training for my new part-time job earlier than anticipated (Thursday) leaving me 637 things I had planned to accomplish before this transition and 2) I had agreed to babysit my friend's foster baby all evening Tuesday night OR as Trista put it "cheat on my grandkids."  So I've decided to recount our "Saturday Evening with Lauren" instead.

As you know from a previous post, Neal and I spent ALL DAY Saturday fighting fires and burning brush (among other things).  I came in at the end of the long day, took a shower, then sat down to rest my aching back and legs, when the phone rang.  Jeremy wanted to know if we would watch Lauren while he and Trista went to the H & G show.  Are you kidding me?  I know the energy it takes to "play" with my granddaughter and the constant relocation from chair to floor to rocking chair to floor to reaching for the play doh, and on and on.  But rather than blurting out my resistance, I deferred to Papa, informing him that she would be HIS for the evening.  He was all up for the challenge.  (Jeff refers to him as the Energizer Bunny.)  I'm glad he agreed, 'cause it turned out to be a most enjoyable and blog-worthy adventure. 

We picked Lauren up and headed to Rib Crib for dinner.  All the way Lauren was singing, "I want to get away....I want to flyyyyyyyy."  I couldn't agree with you more baby girl.

We had a relatively peaceful dinner.  Lauren pleaded a few times to be removed from her high chair, but we held firm.  On Trista's advice, we ordered "sliders" (two very small cheese burgers) and fries.  Papa squeezed a rather ample mound of ketchup on her plate and she started out dipping her fries in the ketchup and ate a few.  Then she reverted to dipping her pinky in the red stuff and licking it off.  Ahhhh.  That was so much better!  We kept coaxing her to eat her burgers and she finally took one of the meat patties and scraped off some of the melted cheese, then dipped IT (the melted cheese) into the ketchup.  I think she finished one of the meat patties and 5 or 6 fries, but the rest of supper totally consisted of ketchup.  Neal was eating ribs and Lauren was quick to let him know when he had sauce on his chin or in the corner of his mouth.  She would point at his face and say, "Papa...wipey."

Our next destination was Academy's in search of a new pair of work boots for Neal.  She was good at the store and was very interested in all the people trying on shoes.  (She LOVES shoes.)  At the checkout, she picked up a KitKat, and not thinking it through, we obliged.  I think most of it ended up in her stomach, but there was still a LOT of melted chocolate on the face and hands.  So, Jeremy & Trista, in case you were wondering...she had ketchup and a KitKat for supper.

All throughout the evening, Lauren kept pushing up her long sleeves.  I was wondering if she was hot, but soon realized that she needed to show off her sparkly bracelet.  Duh, Nana.  As she talked, she was very animated and couldn't stop watching the way the light bounced of her jewels.  Once we were back at home, she took the decorative pillow that hangs on my end table knob and put it over her arm like a purse.  Then she found my old glasses that I'd worn during the big burn and put them on.  She looked hilarious!  But in her mind, she was a princess!  She talked and talked, moving her arm as much as possible to get the full effect of the bracelet.  But the glasses were the funniest.  She looked all around the room, like she was Alice in Wonderland.  Reaching her hand out to touch things that were a foot away, bending down to touch the floor, but not getting within 6" of the floor.  When she started walking, she lifted her leg high in the air, as I'm sure she felt like she was walking uphill.  We laughed til we cried!

Finally, winding down, we started in on the book reading.  She loves books and loves for me to read to her.  But after awhile, she takes over and wants to do the "reading."  One particular book, "How Tall is God?" is a rather large book, in size.  She was reading it to me, and I was trying to help her hold the enormous book.  But she wanted none of that.  Every time the book would start to fall, I would try discreetly to balance it with my finger tips, and she would immediately say, "No, non't hold it!"  Neal and I happened to have the dictionary out while working on our Bible lesson for Sunday.  She decided we needed to read it.  As she turned pages, I randomly picked out words and read the definitions.  When she becomes a Rhodes Scholar, I'll take all the credit.