I feel like chips and candy is pretty much all M has eaten the last few days! We celebrated my birthday Thursday, and she ate frosting, cake batter, and chips for breakfast. Later we grilled chicken and hot dogs and again she didn’t eat much of anything except junk. Yesterday we went to a nearby parade, where she got candy of course, and more chips. Then more grilling, and s’mores in the evening. With our upcoming trip to Germany, I feel like her diet is not going to exactly improve, but it should be somewhat better! I tried to invest in 100% juice fruit snacks, apple slices, and organic milk. Oh well, it’s just been a lot of celebrating going on.
We went to a huge firework show Friday night. I met my grandma’s caregiver after work, and M tried to steal every kid’s sparkler/glo stick/bubble gun throughout the night. She doesn’t ever stay up past nine, and her eyelids were drooping. Her aunt K showed up with two of her sisters (4-year-old A and 12-year-old B) plus the cousins, and they joined us on a blanket for the fireworks, which was great. M kept asking for her “sissies” which was so cute!
The next morning was rough. M was super cranky even though she slept in until 9, but I took her to the parade anyway. She had a scowl the whole time, so we hurried home afterward and put her down for a nap. A few hours later, our caregivers were back with my grandparents, and we fired up the grill again. Eventually, my sister, my niece and her friend showed up, so M finally had some friends to play with on the lake. They used her water slide (she never uses it), played with her floating turtle (she’s afraid of it), and a neighbor’s kid showed up and became her new BFF. They raced and pretend-mowed the lawn and just basically had a great time. The neighbor’s one-year-old grandson was also home and M likes playing with him, too.
We got out on the lake for a bit, and M refused to get in the water with us (even though we were at a shallow sandbar). She stayed on the boat while we swam, then it was back to the bonfire, s’mores, and fireworks. The little girls ended up having a dance party in the neighbor’s house because they found that more fun than fireworks, and my neighbors are awesome and kept saying it was ok. My mom and her boyfriend, her cousin and her boyfriend, our caregivers and one of their boyfriends all rounded out the group.
I love, love, love having big get togethers. I get super sad when holidays are made up of only a couple people. I’m not sure why, I guess it doesn’t feel festive enough. Having a huge group of people at my house yesterday, enjoying the lake, was so much fun. I love making these great memories for M! And I feel like this is probably my grandma’s last summer… she’s not doing so well, so I tried to enjoy every minute of having her there.
Mother of All Things 