Later this week, my eight and thirteen-year-old granddaughters will be coming here for a fun day and sleepover.  Each of them wants to learn the art of pie making, so I will be giving a “cooking class”.  My eight year old granddaughter will bake a chocolate chess pie and my thirteen year old granddaughter wants to make a fruit pie with a lattice top.  Needless to say, that will be a lot of fun!  We will also watch a movie, eat popcorn, maybe have time for some art and just relax together.  They love coming over, exploring my apartment, my art books and hanging out with Grandmom.

I wanted to be sure that my four-year old grandson did not feel “left out”, so yesterday I brought him home with me for a couple of hours.  I teasingly asked him if he wanted to go home with me and “help me clean my apartment, maybe dust mop”.  He was so excited!  His eight year old sister packed him a backpack filled with books and all of the CARS characters – you know, like Lightning McQueen!  He sat down to put his shoes on and the heavy backpack almost pulled him backwards!  His Mom and I had a good laugh and then I carried his backpack for him.

We were about two miles down the road, almost to University Street, when he quietly said “I miss Mom”.  That lasted about a second and then he was on to another topic of conversation thankfully.

I had left the apartment basically in a “mess” with sewing stuff and knitting stuff all over the living room but I knew he wouldn’t care.  When we arrived, I opened the apartment door and he rushed inside.  He looked around the living room and up at me.  He flashed that dimpled smile at me and said, “oh, you’ve decorated”!  I laughed and laughed.

The next two hours were busy ones.  We played CARS on the hardwood floors in my living room.  He’s very creative and can come up with cute themes for our playtime – like it’s Lightning’s birthday and all the cars bring cake and ice cream.  I’m getting really good at making car sounds and definitely have Mater’s Southern accent down pat.  The only problem is my back can’t handle sitting on the hard floor for very long!

Then it was time for his first cooking lesson!  He had such fun making “chocolate no-bakes” with Grandmom!  He stood in front of the stove on my stepladder and carefully added all the ingredients as I handed them to him.  He stirred and stirred.  I took the last stir and spooned the finished cookies onto foil.  When they were cool, I gave him a small one and a glass of milk for his afternoon snack.  We took the rest home with him later for him to share with everyone.

When it was time to take him home, he exclaimed “but I haven’t helped you dust mop, Grandmom!”  I found the dust mop and gave it to him.  He actually had fun for a few minutes dusting the hardwood floors!

Then it was time to leave.  I buckled him carefully in his car seat and we headed back to his home.  We were barely out of my condominium complex, when we asked “do you have some music, Grandmom?”  There was a CD mix of country music in the player and I turned it on.  I was introducing my little Ethiopian Prince to Willie Nelson, Emmy Lou Harris, Alison Krauss and a few other of the classics.  Apparently, my sweet grandson likes country music!

We were about a half mile from my daughter’s house when I asked him if he knew where he was.  “No,” he replied.  “And you don’t either, Grandmom!”

“I’d better know!  I’m driving!” I replied through the laughter…

 Photo taken at The Great Pumpkin Festival at church. 

My daughter made the costume for Halloween which you can read about here.