Optimism Redeemed

We Get This Young Lady for a Whole Week!

I ended yesterday’s very political post with a comment about optimism. While I don’t see any signs of reality intruding on Washington, back home was a different story. I came home to find the New Jersey contingent had arrived! We are all attending a Rhode Island wedding today and they beat me home by a few minutes. I told them to check out the living room first because my Favorite Panamanian had done some serious shopping over the past week. It has been a whole four days since we last saw them so she felt the need to bridge that gap.

Bouncing Away

Finding her New Acquisitions

We all know how much the First Blog Reader loves the trampoline her other grandmother got for her. Since she is staying with us for a week my wife felt we needed a similar device in residence. While she was at the toy store there were several other items needed to fully flesh out the experience. After seeing (and assembling) her purchases I told her she would have to sabbaticalize her shopping efforts as we no longer had room for additional devices. We have a play house, a miniature Adirondack chair and a bucket of fridge magnets in addition to the trampoline.

The Fridge Magnets Immediately went up

Driveway Art

Needless to say our newly equipped living room was a huge hit with the granddaughter who was busily bouncing away when I pulled in. Over the next twenty minutes she discovered each of the other new gifts as well. It seemed she would note anything different from her last visit and investigate. I placed myself in complete thrall as she circled the inside of the house, played with everything and then moved out onto Deckzilla. After sampling her new chair she led me into the garage where she discovered some sidewalk chalk my wife had also purchased and hidden there. We set up in the driveway to begin art lessons. She also remembered her role in our recent joint gardening venture, decided there was too much mulch, and set about removing it. She also converted our semi-rusty bulkhead into a field expedient slide.

Bulkhead Sliding

Grampa - These Handles Will have to Go

By the time her mother and abuela returned from the grocery store my granddaughter was covered in dirt, chalk, mulch and a couple of other unidentified foreign substances. In other words she looked like any self-respecting nineteen month old left in the care of a grandfather who can deny her nothing. She’s in for a full week of this as she is being left in our charge after the wedding. The appropriate happy dance is in full flower. 

Apparently the Grandpuppy (r) is now Dating