Doctor Grandma

Zakiah is sleeping in his own bed back home with Mommy and Baba tonight. Grandma is staying overnight, then will be on her way to Indiana. Our 4-hr drive here was a pretty smooth ride, really. I did not even play a movie. Zakiah talked to himself in his carseat the whole trip. He DID ask me repeatedly, “Grandma, I want to go to my mommy’s house…” at least once every 20 mins. I’d say, “that’s where we’re going,” and he would respond, “OH-tay.” We stopped 2-3X, I don’t remember, not too bad.

I was thinking tonight, that in raising my 4 kids, I never, ever got such a break. My mom was an active alcoholic until the week Levin was born, and never did even watch the kids for an evening. She just wasn’t capable. I mean, she raised 4 kids, but she never watched my kids, even though we were in town. Let’s say, she wasn’t comfortable.

Anyway. I was never separated from my kids, ever. I took the girls to the World Congress and left the boys at home with Al. They were ages 10 & 7 at the time. At least one of them still resents that. I also went back to work when Levin was a year old. But we were always together at night.

I was also thinking that I was fierce in my being a stay-at-home mom for 11 years. It was the poorest financial time we ever had. And I did not go back to work. There is no way someone else was going to watch MY kids when they were so little. We also kept having them……. and it is hard to find a babysitter, let alone for an overnight, for 4 kids. We also could never afford a vacation, ever. So, I have many full memories of wracking my brain trying to think of free things to do. Library trips were a regular. They also check out puzzles and cassette tape books (I’m sure now they are CDs). Once in awhile we actually rode the bus just for something to do. most of the time, we’d walk to the drugstore and get something cheap, or walk to the donut shop. I can remember so many, many times, letting each of the boys pick out some toy at the Mall, as long as it was $2.00 or less. What the hell can you get for 2.00 or less? They always got some hot wheels car or an action figure on sale. Not having money, though, is very stressful and tiring, especially when you are raising kids. But that’s always when you don’t have any money. And now I see my kids going thru it.

I hope I have a safe trip tomorrow.

Today was a playground day. This was a great time. However, a little boy came right when we were ready to go home for a nap. Zakiah has been asking for his “friends” ever since he got here. He played with the boy for a few mins. & then I made him leave, and he was SOOOOO sad. He was reaching out his arm to his “friend” and crying. It was really hard for me to do, but we were already 1/2 hr. late for naptime, and I promised Mommy to try to stay on schedule. I think, really, he just reached his limit today, & is missing home very much. So it was a way for him to let out the sadness he feels. He has been very happy with us, playing, interacting, pretending, reading books, getting ice cream, it is been a great visit. He is just at his limit. I told him he will have so many friends at Mommy’s school, when he gets back home.

The other thing we did is stop to see the horses near us, close up. Got out of the car. They actually walked over to be closer to us and were eating grass near us. Zakiah sadly said, “They’re not saying HI to us.”  I said, no, horses can’t talk. Then he said, “They just make noise?” I said yes. Then, “They’re not making noise Grandma.”

    I feel like the days are very full, yet there is little to report. We are out of extra money this week, we are moving, so we are not doing things that cost money. I had planned to take Zakiah to Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia. But that will have to happen at another time.

Zakiah is a happy child. Today he played around me quite a bit. We started the day watching Diego and Dora the Explorer. He liked those, and joined in with some of the Spanish and English words. Dora always has a map, and Diego a backpack. We had banana and pancakes for breakfast. Zakiah loved a simple pancake with honey on it.

Then he and I made a trip to the new house. I brought the rest of our framed pictures and paintings and a few books, always more books. It was 10:30 by the time we left, so I drove thru McD’s and got us one chicken mcnugets meal to share, Zakiah having an orange juice as well. He explored the house but really lost interest in that faster than I thought he would. (As a kid, I was excited about exploring any new house. It was always a big, good time for me to run through a new house.) He found a chess set and played with that, but soon took pieces here and there, so that didn’t work too well either. I unpacked some small kitchen boxes, as we needed them back at the house to pack (more books) into.

We walked over to the pond behind the house briefly, then returned for a little more lunch, (sugarless) popsicle, and NAP. He has only had candy once while here. The nap was into 2 hours long, so I decided to run a load of books to my office, with Al calling me if he woke up. He did wake up and was very sad Grandma wasn’t here.

Some Newberry friends Al has made at a coffee shop here, came by to help us move our couch, my mom’s hutch, & a file cabinet. Zakiah was excited to return to the new house with Grandpa but very upset Grandpa rode in the truck and not with us in the car. We unloaded all that stuff there and took a relaxed walk around the big pond (see picture). Zakiah has learned while here to be interested in “the woods”. There were some side trails into the woods there so he said, “Let’s go THIS way.” He wanted to touch the water, but gave up on that when the grass got wet near the water (He was holding my hand). There are no ducks on this pond. We are not sure why. We heard frogs but couldn’t see them.

Back home, dinner, shower, brush teeth, phone call to Mommy and Baba, and to bed. He has 3 books he has adored reading every night here. (Kids get into habits and remember certain books). Every night we have read “Swimmy,” “Put me in the zoo,” and “The Giving Tree”. There is one other one which is an antique, a really strange, older book, called “The Funny Bunny Factory,” about some rabbits who live in an abandoned factory that they accidently turn on, and it starts making fancy colored and candy eggs.

Funniest part of the bedtime tonight was reading “Swimmy,” who is the only black fish in a school of all-red fish. Zakiah knows the part where he says “and ONE fish was BLACK,” and the next line is, “And his name was _______.”  Zakiah tonight said, “Dirty!” I guess this is the first time I’ve interacted with Zakiah closely with books and he has listened all the way to the end, and taken part in the words as he gets to know them.

He has missed Mommy and Baba too, and reacted with pure delight tonight when I said, “And day after tomorrow we go to mommy’s house.” He also is into the letter “s” and the SSSSS sound. Every time he says “Yes,” he hangs onto the ssssssssss sound. I also noticed him accentuating a “t” sound at the end of a word tonight, saying t-t-t- a few times.

Other than this, he was out in our yard here at the older house for awhile and always enjoys that, a little bit in the sprinkler, etc. He is happy outside.

3 years old. Zakiah is with us today through Wed. Here, he had taken the material from the arm rest and put it on his head, and holding 2 balloons, was ready to jump off the chair.

I was going to write today’s highlights, but I think I am too tired to think of anything clever. He talks absolutely non-stop. The only times he “played” without talking to me was a little bit with a plane made out of lego’s; outside in the yard with two sticks; and when he found the santour (or whatever it is) of AL’s and was banging on it with a wooden stick player. We also did bubbles in the yard.

One close call was when he stuck his finger into a fire ant hill, and Grandpa swooped him up immediately before thousands of them came zooming out and swarmed the top of the hill looking for the invader. They are FIERCE and their bites hurt and swell. Zakiah has avoided that area ever since watching all those ants come swarming out of there.

We unpacked his suitcase and found his gummy vitamins all melted together into a blob. He took a shower quite well, once he got in there, then we read 2 books, he gathered his stuffed animals around him, and laid down. In one book, we read a prayer, so that was done as well.  We made a rather comfortable spot for him on the floor, with a rug, 2 sleeping bags, 2 pillows and his purple blanket. I also gave him a small kitty cat blanket.