My grandson and I go to the Atlanta Zoo. The last time we went he became very interested
in animals who are endangered. He wanted me to read all the flip charts  on the fences
in front of the animals. One of the pieces of information on the chart is the status of the
 animal. I had to explain what all the categories meant. He found it hard to believe that
animals could disappeared. He had a plan. Every animal that was endanged he decided
he was going to save. Some time after that visit to the zoo there was a story in the
newspaper about an endangered frog. I told him about it and he immediately said he
would save the frog.























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My church, Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Atlanta, GA has started allowing young
 children to  communion take. My grandson and I spent a morning learning, in a very fun
 way, Biblical history and how communion came about. We even practiced holding
the wafer and dipping it in the grape juice. The next day my husband, grandson,
and I went to church. When it was time for communion my grandson stepped out into
 the isle and immediately put his little hands together and kept him that way until the wafer
was put into his hand. He then took the wafer, dipping in the  wine and said mm, mm good
 and walked back to his seat.

Understanding how  learn children to read and write remains a mystery to me.However,
 watching how my grandson is learning letters and numbers, I am convinced that writing
 his letters is helping with his  ability to learn to spell words he sees all over the place- on stores, TV titles etc.

messages vs instructions

When I tell my grandson a story before he goes to sleep, it involves a young man who rides his Suzuki motorcycle and has a run - in with snakes. I always make sure I let him know that the young man, who is really a grown up Brandon, is coming home from or going off to college. Occassionally, he is on vacation from  college and takes a trip to some part of the world. I do this hoping Brandon will get the message that going to college is a good thing for him to do when he grows up.

The other day we were talking about what he would do when he grows up. I offerd him several suggestions to which he said no. "Then what do you want to do when you grow up?' I asked. "Go to school," he said.

swording with basketball trophy

Brandon (4 years old) played Itty Bitty basketball this winter. Last Saturday the team members along with their parents met for breakfast at Chick Fil A. After everyone ate his or her breakfast, the boys received their trophies. They all got up from the table and almost in unison raised up their trophies and began have sword fights. I don't get to see Brandon with other kids very much now.( He likes to sword fight with me and my husband) I was reassured that he was not the only boy who loved to sword fight. He fights with play swords, straws, sticks, plant stakes, and the tubes inside rolls of paper. Without our knowing it,the other night he went into the closet where the wrapping paper is stored and pulled the paper off the rolls so could sword fight. Swording fighting must be in the DNA

The hiding game evolves

When Brandon was 2 he started playing the hiding game.(his parents were still married and lived with us) Whenever a family member came he would hide someplace in the living room, mostly curled up in the chair that is next to the front door. Whomever found him would cry out ,"I found you, I found you."
He would look up with a smile across his face as he was scoopped up into the finders arms. . As he got older he would call out,"you can't find me, you can't find me." He found better hiding places but there was always a telltale part of his body sticking out, his beautiful curly hair or feet. He continued to love being found. With each game he was reassured we would not forget about him. Sometime between the ages of 3 and 4 his hiding game became a true hide and seek. He counted to twenty when he was it and searched the house for the person hiding. When it was time for him to hide he was truly hidden. Whether he was hiding or someone else, he seemed to experience the great joy of the find.

A goodnight kiss

Brandon usually only spends Friday night with us as his mother works an extra job. He sleeps in the same bed with me. When my husband comes over to kiss me good night, Brandon has to rush to give me 2 kisses before my husband gives me a kiss. He then does this finger flicking gesture with my husband. Then books and stories begin.

a final pooping story

My grandson is completely potty trained. The last part of this project was using a grown up toilet instead of a child's potty. One day he had to go so badly that his only choice was the toilet. Without any help from any one he pooped, cleaned himself and got his clothes back on. He is very proud of himself  for doing this and calls us to look at his poop and then flushes away saying,"good bye poop. I asked him the other day if he was afraid to use the big toilet because he was afraid he would fall in and he said,"yes".
I should have had a special ceremony the other day when I put both of his child potties in the attic but he wasn't home so they just joined all the other pieces of his early years .

a bike for his birthday

Our grandson just celebrated his 4th birthday. We got him a 2 wheeled bike (with training wheels) as our present. The other day we took him to Piedmont Park for his first chance to ride it. He had to get used to pushing the wheels foward and not backwards so neither of us stopped suddenly. He wasn't sure how to stear the bike so I guided him holding onto the handle bars. He kept looking at the ground and not where he was going and at times started to tip over. I was thankful that he liked dogs as he took a break from riding and had to pet every dog he saw once Pa made sure the dog liked children.
  About 3 days later he wanted to ride his bike again. So we put it on the cement walk that surrounds the pool. Without any help he was able to ride his bike around and around. He kept the speed low and used the breaks appropriatly. I was just amazed he became so comfortable on the bike so fast.

grandma's closet

For reasons I don't understand my grandson loves to be in my closet with me and with the lights out. It is not my favorite place to be but I stay in there for a while. I have a globe that shows all the constellations. He loves to get this down and turn on the light . He then shines them on me, or the door or on himself. I usually tell tim what the constellation is but he doesn't care. Once done with the globe, he leaves the closet and get his grandfather to try and find me.

trip to Chattanooga

Our grandson's other grandmother needed to be away some extra days when she usually cares for him during the day. My husband and I decided to drive to Chattanooga, TN. He loves trains so we decided to stay in one of the train cars. at the Chattanooga Choco-Choco Hotel. Once we parked we walked down the lane of train cars and he could hardly believe we were  going to stay in one. Once in the car he  explored all parts of it and was really taken by the bathroom. Once he and my husband got out of the car before I did. It was a liitle dark and he came running back to get me so I "would be safe. I thanked him and gave him a big kiss . He proceeded to run down the aisle toward the engine. He always wanted to know what the name of the rods that are connected the wheels on the steam engine. My husband looked it up on the web and found out they are called connecting roods. Everytime he sees a steam engine he says "look at those connecting rods like he has discovered them all over again.
   We went to the Chattanooga aquarium in the morning and then drove out to the TVNR and took a ride on a stean drawn train. He was so well behaved it was amazing. The other day he asked if we could go back again.

Time out

My husband and I tend to be a little more lenient  with our grandson then his mother. We don't put him in time out very much. The major offenses are picking on 1 of our 2 Westies or hitting us. When he won't stop either activity he is told he now has to to into the corner for time out. On the way to the corner he gets teary eyed and says, " I am sorry, I am sorry." When he gets in the corner he cries and my shout at us or sit on the floor and move his legs back and forth. If we try and talk with him he shouts,"don't talk to me." The part of this entire process I find most interesting is that he is personally offended we put him in time out and it made him cry.It is not that we are mad at him or he hurt one of the dogs (for whom he shows warm affection for 95% of the time ), or that he is missing out on some other activity. He is 3 years old and stay in time out for 1 to 3 minutes. When the time is up I offer to comfort him . He say no and won't leave the corner. The time outs seem to help. I  now just say that the corner is still there and I don't want to make him cry. He will stop what he is doing.

the dead cricket

I came out of the back door and Brandon walked up to me with his hands on his hips and then thrust them out to the side saying," O well the cricket died in the pool and I burried him in ther garden but I didn't say a prayer."

having mouth washed out wih soap.

I can't ever envision that my grandson will have his mouth washed out with soap but he loves to have me tell him what happened to me. "tell me the story of soap in your mouth."And once again with the telling I connect with my childhood. It was my mother's expectation that when she called me I would come home right away. This particular summer evening ,I was 8 or 9 years old and was playing playing kick the can with my friends on the next block over from my house. I heard my mother call me but didn't want to stop playing. I figured when I got home I would just tell her I didn't hear her because I was so far away. Well, she kept calling and I finally decided to go home. When I got home she said'" where have you been." I gave her my excuse but she didn't buy it and told me to go up to the bathroom. Up there she proceed to push a bar of soap into my teeth. It tasted awful and it took hours to get the the taste out of my mouth. I never did that again.. When I tell Brandon the story he thinks it is so funny and wants me to repeat it again.

fall with a bumped head

Brandon slipped off the bathtub and bumped his head coming to me for comfort. While sitting on my lap I asked if he would like to ice on his head and he said yes. I put an ice cub on his head thinking he was not seriously hurt. Quickly he looked up at me and said, "I have a better idea." He went into the bathroom, got a wash cloth, wrapped an ice cub in it and put it on his head and sat on my lap again. I smiled and said,"yes that is a better idea."

humpty dumpty

Brandon is now 4 years old

I am not sure why I started saying the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme but my grandson loves to repeat it. He  is now putting a new twist on humpty's recovery. Brandon's plan is to pick him up and put him back together again doing a better job than all the king's horses and all the kings men.

books and stories

   Our grandson spends a lot of time with us. His parents are now divorced and his mother is a police officer who has to be at work at 6:30am. He either spends the nite with us or she brings him here at 6am. When he spends the nite, before he goes to sleep I read him 2 books that he (most of the time) selects and then I have to tell him a story. Topics of the stories have to be cars- corvetts and mustangs, motorcycles- suzukies, or snakes. When he arrives  at 6am, he requests a book but I tell him it is too early. I suggest a story and that is OK with him. The nice thing for me is that he falls asleep before he hears the story so I can tell it again. The main character of each story is either a little boy or a young man. He does not have a name but my grandson know he is that character.

it finally happened

My grandson will be 4 in October. As of a month ago he was not toilet trained for stool much to the worry of me, his mother, grandpa and his other grandma. He had a few successes but it didn't last. He has too many gagets for my liking and each was taken away until he could have a BM in the toilet. He also had 2 remote controlled cars that he could not use until then. Part of me was pleased that he couldn't use all those devices. Part of me was worried about how long it would take him to use the toilet. He didn't even seem to care that he couldn't play, his DS, Wii or xbox- all provided by his parents. On several occassions he would ask to use something but when we said no he went to play with something else.
   He always seemed to know when he would have a BM as he would stand in the corner of the den and poop telling us to stay away from him. We would urge him to use the potty but he said no. Once he was urine trained he came out of pullups but would poop in his pants. He would clean himself and put clean pants on. During this time we all backed off and when he told us he had to go poop we said OK and all went about our business. Then 1 day when we were away he pooped in the potty and hasn't looked back.
He rermains so very proud of himself as well he should. Each poop is announced and praised.

on being a gentleman

My grandson likes to eat eggs and sausage for breakfast or at other times of the day. One recent evening he wanted them. I began to get all the ingredients and he pulled the chair up to the stove. I asked what he was doing and he told me he was going to help me as it was the gentlemanly thing to do. He is 3 1/2 years old.

Beginning Kung Fu

My grandson has never met a stick that couldn't be used as a sword. He also likes to do round house kicks and make kung fu  motions with his arms. His mom has gotten him involved in kung fu lessions. The person who teaches the lessions has agreed to let him do this even though he is only 3 1/2 years old because of his level of coordination and strength. This should be really good for him especially to become more focused.