May 25, 2013

  • Birthday Party....Early But Who Cares?

    TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

    Tomorrow the Princess is having Chewlee's birthday party.  It's five days early but it's better to have it early rather than late because then we would be hearing this:  *But (sob) I am ALREADY six! (sob, sob)  It's AFTER my birthday! (sob, sob, sob)*  That's because Chewlee knows the difference.  Today, when I said to her, *Tomorrow is your birthday and we are having a party!  Won't that be fun?*  Here's what she said to me....*Grandma, tomorrow I am having a party but it isn't my birthday.  I won't be six tomorrow.*  I told her that I knew that but we were going to have the party to celebrate her birthday so that all her friends could come.  She said, *I know THAT but I won't really be six until Thursday.*  So I said to her....*Does that mean we can't put six candles on your cake?*  She actually stopped to think about it and then said, *No, it's okay to put six candles on it because I won't have any cake on my REAL birthday.*  Kids! 

    I watched Chewlee for a little while today while the Princess ran over to Walmart to pick up Chewlee's big present.  No, it's not an electric car which I think is a sad thing BUT....it will help keep Chewlee occupied at home because it happens to be one thing that Chewlee complained about to me today.  Oh heck...it's a new bike so that Chewlee has one at home.  We have her old one here.  She wanted to go outside to ride her bike and I wouldn't let her do it right then because I was busy with something and told her she had to wait.  It's the rule here that she can't play out front unless the Beast or I am outside to watch her.  She started to cry and said, *But Grandma, I don't have a bike at my house to ride and I really, really want to ride it before Mommy comes to get me.*  The poor thing.  I made her wait all of five minutes while I finished folding a few things I wanted to get done and over with.  She actually counted them because I told her I only had six things left and then it would take me two minutes to put them away.  She then wanted to know what she had to count to for two minutes.  Her face looked really strange when I told her she had to count to 60 two times after I finished folding.  Because I had a grin on my face, she thought I was kidding her and told me so.  *Aww, Grandma...you are teasing me.  That's not nice.  I'm serious!*  I just said, *So am I, dear, so am I.*

    So we head outside and the neighbor across the circle's little dog was outside, chewing on a tennis ball.  He jumped up and got so excited when we came out that he dropped that ball and ran over to the stairs.  Chewlee loves that dog.  It's got a sweet disposition and loves to be petted.  He actually closes his eyes in this blissful posture.  Makes me wonder if his *family* ever pets him.  Anyway, after Chewlee petted him for a while, she decided to throw the ball for the dog to chase.  He started out chasing the ball, bringing it back but he's never learned to drop the ball so someone can throw it again. 

    I was telling Chewlee what to do to teach him about dropping the ball or at least letting her take it from him and she was doing what I told her.  After about a dozen or so times waiting for him to put the ball down so she could throw it (and she was more patient than I thought she might be), he actually got the idea.  He started dropping the ball when he got back to her.  He only kept it when he wanted to take a break because she kept throwing that ball for him for damn near an hour.  He has these short little legs and all I could think was it was lucky that Chewlee was really bad at throwing because it didn't really go all that far.  He tried to jump up in the air to catch the ball when it bounced on the driveway but never quite caught it.  I think Chewlee was having almost as much fun as he was.  She didn't seem to want to stop.  She stopped, reluctantly, when I told her it was time to go inside.  She never DID ride her bike....LOL 

    Baron was going nuts while this was going on because I wouldn't let him out.  He whined, he barked, he clawed at the door but I didn't dare let him come out.  You see, he runs away from the house with that little dog and won't come back when he's called unless it's the Beast that calls him.  Part of it is that I can't yell as loud and I definitely can't give the whistle (anymore) that would bring him back on the run.  We've only just started using loud claps and he's not used to those yet.  So, when the Beast isn't here, I don't let him out front.  I'll be damned if I am going to go into the house, get my keys and chase him down with the car.  He will immediately get into the car when I open the door for him but it's a real pain in the ass to go through.

    I mentioned to the Princess that I couldn't believe that all Chewlee asked me to get her for her birthday was marbles.  The Princess put the kibosh on that idea as soon as I said it.  I guess Chewlee has three marbles at home that she finally took away from her because she kept putting them in her mouth and the Princess said she knew Chewlee would choke on them eventually.  It's not like she put ONE marble in at a time, she would put all three of them in her mouth.  She said I should just buy her some of the kiddie makeup since Chewlee loves to put the eye shadow on (it's shades of pink that you can't really tell is on unless you are a little girl).  She loves when she dresses up to put her *makeup* on like Mommy does when SHE goes out.  I've seen her here almost panic if she forgets her eye shadow.  After she's dressed up for church, she has to put her shadow on before her hair is brushed.  THEN she is ready to go.  She will grab her purse, put her shadow in along with her lip gloss and then she's ready to head out the door.  Too funny.

    So tomorrow, before I head out to her house, I have to hit the local stores and find what I can to add to her bag of goodies since she used up the last of her eye shadow the Princess told me.  I'll do the best I can.  Of course I will.  What else are grandmothers and great-grandmothers for??? 

    Her bounce house is at the house and Johnnycakes was going to be adding the air to it this evening.  They give you this small generator and I think it takes all night to fill it using one of those.  Plus the Princess bought a fancy kind of slip and slide with a ramp from a pool and a fountain around the edge of the pool.  The Princess said she is definitely going to give it a try since we are supposed to have another hot day tomorrow.  All the mothers were told to make sure their kids had their bathing suits either on or with them.  She picked up some extra towels to have there for everyone.  I told her I might even put on MY bathing suit, who knows?

    OH! OH!  I almost forgot.  After all the rain we've had in the last week, I had to go out and check on my lettuce and radishes since you could see that all the veggies and other plants seem to have sprouted up more than double their sizes.  Sure enough, I was glad I brought a big bowl with me (and some scissors).  I cut some lettuce for our salad and picked the radishes that were poking out of the ground (those are the big ones).  I then went and cut enough asparagus for a side dish.  After washing the lettuce well, I put it back in the bowl along with some water and ice.  It was fantastic in my salad along with some cucumber, thin sliced onion, shredded carrot, romaine lettuce and a bit of red cabbage also thinly sliced.  Maybe it was just me but a fresh salad really hit the spot.  I tried a little bleu cheese dressing first...on one part of the salad, then some Ranch and then a little raspberry vinagrette that my girlfriend had brought over to the house to try.  It all tasted lovely and damn near filled me up.  I waited until later to eat the main course which was a stuffed poblano pepper from our favorite Mexican restaurant here.

    Tomorrow, I MUST get out and pick the strawberries that are ripe and get those rinsed off and in the fridge.  I was going to bring some over for Chewlee but the Princess bought a few quarts because she is going to make some homemade ice cream to go with our cake.  That should be fun.  It's been a while since we had homemade ice cream.  We used to make it a lot when we had our house in Margate, Florida.  We'd put it on while we were swimming in the pool (under the umbrella on one of the tables on the pool patio).  The Beast would keep getting out and pushing the ice cream down with the paddle because he was more impatient than the kids were (the Princess's little friends that were swimming at our house).  I'm curious  to see if Chewlee will be impatient or not.

    Love you all.  Time to get this posted.  Have a fun weekend.