Doting Grandma

Can I tell you that I love being a Grandma?  Not interested?  Sorry but I am a doting Grandmother, and I can’t help but share this last Labor Day Weekend.  This, our first, our most special weekend.  I want to be a Grandma, I want to have my grandchildren come spend time with me and look back and remember the fun times, the things we only do at Gramdma’s and Papa’s house.  I have 3 grandchildren, the oldest is too old to really enjoy being with her Grandma and Papa.  She came to us later in life, and she is in absolute joy, but we missed some of the formative bonding years.  Our youngest is just a baby and not old enough yet…..to remember any lasting memories.  Then there is our ‘Alligator Monster’.  Our grandson’s middle name is Alexander but it was too difficult to say so he replaced it with “Alligator”; now he is our special Alligator Monster.

 I had the hardest time trimming down my 500 photos to just a ‘snapshot’  view of our weekend together.  See, we were lucky enough that Mom and Dad were ready to  let their little alligator spend a few days away from the parental units and spend time with grandma and papa at their cabin.

I can’t tell you how excited we were! Papa was at the ‘cowboy’ store and found this incredibly cute  red union suit.  Papa tried to explain why it was named a union suit, but our alligator just said “huh?”.

 Papa also bought a cowboy hat, because every boy should have one.  Only our boy has a huge noggin and for a 3 year old the standard hat was, well, just too small.  He obviously didn’t take after his Mom, Aunt or I, who are the only pin heads in the family!

 It is so important to find a special rock, “Grandma, take a picture of my rock.  Pleeeease?”

 Papa shows the alligator that there are fish in the pond.

Alligator insisted that grandma take a picture of the fishy! 

Not an easy shot, to be sure, but if my grandson wants a picture, I’ll do it! 

 Here he is sporting his new Moose Rules in Montana T-shirt grandma bought him.

One thing that Alligator loves is his “fishy” pole.  Papa bought him his Scooby Doo fishy pole last year for our vacation last year in Yellowstone Park. 

  Never mind there isn’t any water, there is always a place to go fishing when you are 3 years old.

Alligator, says to me “Grandma, see that beautiful blue water down there?” 

 I love his imagination, because grandma could see the beautiful blue water.  And the bright orange fish he ‘caught’.

Nothing like back deck fishing, very convenient you know. 

 Course Papa and Grandma couldn’t bring Alligator up to the mountains to deck fish, we had to take him to our ittty bitty creek to try to catch fish.  Good news, is that when you are 3 it doesn’t really matter about the kind of fishing you are doing, as long as you feel like you are having a good day fishing.

 I think we could learn a thing or to from him!

It’ s a good thing our lil’ alligator doesnt’ know that dogs wading in the water scares all the fish away.

Papa wears gloves when ever he does work, so naturally our Alligator had to have gloves too! 

 He donned Grandma’s work gloves and he was happy.  Now if mama and dada would cut his hair so he would be more photogenic from the left side….

I’m just sayin, it’s a gramdmother’s peragotive!

Can you believe that it was 80° F one day and snowing another?

If your are 3 years old and it’s snowing what do you do?  You do some more deck fishing! Only this time with your hoody on.

And when you are not fishing?  Cleaning off the snow that has barely accummulated on the porch rocking chair is just as much fun.

 At the first spot of snow/cold weather, papa was Johnny on the spot and cut up some wood.  Alligator couldn’t wait to help his Uncle Ryan stack the wood, as long as he had his Thomas the Tank Engine Backpack on.

Our Alligator found a great playmate in Summer dog, they are about the same size so a little WWF body slam was on his agenda. 

Plus a little chase here and there.

 But his most favorite thing? A ride in the Rhino.  So much so that he constantly asked “can I go on a ride?”.

 He would even climb into the Rhino and wait, “please, somebody take me for a ride!”.

Okay, no one is taking me for a ride, “Uncle Ryan, pleeeeease help me out!” 

 There are just some things that we found our grandson loved.  He loved berries, as evidence by his “Joker” face; and he discovered the Walkie Talkies.  Fortunatly for him he had a ‘pocket’ in his union suit to hold one.

Mostly Alligator wore his Crocs® which meant that his feet got dirty, really dirty!  Grandma wiped his feet off regularly but who can fight the ground in dirt?

A bath in the kitchen sink is the perfect solution.  Who would have thought that anyone would fit into our small sink!   He enjoyed it so much that I could hardly get him out of there, even when he turned pruney.

You have to love this about little boys….playing in the dirt. 

We roasted a marshmallow, but when we found out that our little Alligator didn’t like marshmallows, only roasting them; it was the first and last roasted marshmallow of the weekend. 

Before Iknew it, it was time to go bye-bye with our cookie chip, we are going to see mama and daddy.

I know, I’m a doting grandmother, but our Alligator was such a good boy the entire weekend (minus one accident which I’ll share later).  His Mom and dad have done a great job with him.  I couldn’t be more proud or more more happy.  T. Alligator L. we can’t wait to have you come and spend more time with Grandma and Papa!