Tomorrow is Another Toddler Sitting Day

Tomorrow we get to babysit our two three year old twin grandkids.

Since we have to get up at the crack of dawn to load the car and get ourselves to the kids house by eight a.m. for the parents to get to their jobs on time I am getting everything ready tonight. DH still is off work from his teaching job for the holiday season. He doesn't have to be back to work until Monday so he's happy he can go on a Friday with me too. When I go to be with the kids I always ALWAYS bring my grandma's bag. This is a huge Lands End canvas bag (most people use them for going to the beach) and I fill it with toys such as games, a bunch of little cars of all sorts, my 'knit by me' grandma and grandpa dolls, hand puppets, music makers, cards with numbers and letters, story books, many many things I have gleaned over the past three years at garage sales and thrift stores. Tonight I added the big bark crayons I got at the airport, and two new coloring books I picked up at the grocery store tonight after dinner. One is a Thomas the Train book, my grandson's favorite toy of all toys (besides his guitar) and one about little cars. That one came with crayons too. I tossed in the Little Mermaid costume grand daughter enjoyed dressing up in at our Chanukah party. Then I spent about half an hour dying pasta with food coloring and alcohol: We now have a plastic container with red, yellow, blue, green and purple pastas in various shapes and sizes. I am also gluing tips of twine so they can string the pasta into necklaces. And then they can also glue some on paper for art projects. It's raining here big time and a huge storm is coming in tomorrow. So we are bringing lots of things to do indoors. DH will bring his guitar to play and sing to the grand kids and they both have little guitars and will play theirs and sing along with him. I brought some crochet hooks and yarn to work on the slippers they need after out growing last years slippers. I can do this while they are napping. And little grand daughter told her mother that "Grandma can fix the dress I have that has a rip in it." So I packed some threads and needles to be able to live up to her expectations of me. Oh, and lest you wonder I have also packed my camera! Would not forget that in a million years. I hope I can sleep tonight. I get very excited before I am going to spend the day with these little kids. I have been blessed to have them close enough to where we live to be very well bonded to them and them to me/us. For the first two years of their lives I got to be with them every Friday. They had a nanny, a wonderful young woman from Peru, who took care of them in their home while mommy and daddy worked. Since I did not work on Fridays I asked to and got to spend those Fridays with them. This was the start of my grandmas' bag. They've had it in their lives from before they could drag it across the room or unzip the zipper themselves to open it. They still wait for me for the formal opening! It's cute. "Come on Grandma, lets open the bag!" And they do and they find toys in there that have been there from the very beginning and newer ones and new ones. Always some surprises. But the joy of old familiar toys are fun too. On Saturday I can tell you how it went. Sweet dreams to all.