Gigi Tales

My mother-in-law has been our fill-in nanny until our nanny starts mid-September.  She has been wonderful and the kids love having her around.  I think she looks forward to getting back to just being Gigi, instead of babysitter (which requires discipline instead of lots of spoiling).  Here is the story she sent me via email:

As a Gigi I have the privilege of taking my babies out to lunch.  As we were getting out of the car at Chick-Fil, Cooper and I have this conservation:

Cooper:  (as he is hugging me and giving me a kiss)  Gigi, I love you sometimes.

Gigi:  You love me only sometimes?

Cooper:  Yeah, cause sometimes I have to love Mommy.

Gigi:  That makes sense.

Cooper:  Yeah.

Competition

Before bed we let the kids watch a short show in our room. After the show is over the tv goes off and we do to their bathroom to brush teeth. For the last several months Cooper has had a tantrum because Charlotte races him to the bathroom and wins. We explained that he's just going to have to run faster.

In the last couple of weeks we've noticed no more tantrums. Upon closer inspection Cooper is winning the race to the bathroom. And before the race begins this is what we overhear:

Cooper: Charyotte I need you to turn off the tv now.

Charlotte: Otay Coopeh.

As she gets up to turn the tv off, he books it to the bathroom and always wins. Charlotte seems oblivious and doesn't really care about winning. How's that for strategy?

I see squares all around me

Cooper announced "when I put my fingers over my eyes real hard and then move them out of the way I see squares all around me!"

Funny, I see the same thing! I love when they let me see the world through their eyes.

Blogging from iphone

Testing to see if this will work.

The kids love taking self portraits on the phone. Let's see if I can post directly from the phone.

Dead like the deer and now he’s dirt

We drove by the hospital that my dad was in when he died.  The kids are very aware that this is THE hospital.  The conversation went something like this (I’m going to leave off the kidspeak because it will be easier to follow):

Cooper:  That’s the hospital where grandpa is!

Me:  That’s where grandpa was, yes, but remember grandpa died so he’s not there anymore.

Cooper:  Yeah grandpa is dead.  He will be dead for a really long time.  Like the deer on Gigi’s wall.  Gigi’s dad killed that deer and it is dead for a really long time.  Like grandpa.  The doctors couldn’t help him no more.  So he is dead. (Obviously Gigi had to explain the deer head on her wall, LOL.)

Me:  That’s right, grandpa got sick and grandpa is dead like the deer. [OMG, did I just say that??]

Charlotte:  Your dad is dirt now, right mommy?

Me:  Yes grandpa is dirt now. [Ashes are kind of like dirt, no point in attempting to explain.]

Charlotte:  And he’s in the mountains cause we put him on the ground.

Cooper:  And he is really dead, like the deer.

Charlotte:  And we are sad.

Me:  Sometimes we get sad when we think about not being able to see grandpa anymore, but we can still remember all the fun times we had with grandpa.

Charlotte:  Yeah, he pushed us on the swings!