Grandma Irene stayed with us for ten amazing days. Here are some of the reasons her visit was so special:
There was never a sink full of dirty dishes. Grandma loaded and unloaded the dishwasher. Every. Single. Day. Sometimes more than once.
I never ran over the newspaper with my car when I backed out of the driveway to bring the kids to school because Grandma actually put on her shoes and fetched the newspaper every morning. (She read it, too.)
Since Grandma was there to entertain the boys, I went to the bathroom by myself…with the door closed…several times.
As long as we’re talking about the bathroom… Grandma Irene inspired Riley to pee in the potty! Unfortunately, she gave him an entire bag of Skittles from our Halloween stash as a reward. The next morning, when he tinkled in the potty again, I cheered, clapped and gave him three Skittles in a bowl. Do you know what he did? He threw the bowl of Skittles at me because my attempt at portion control was an insult. He wanted the whole bag of candy or nothing at all. (FYI: He got nothing.)
Grandma chilled wine on a daily basis. On one particularly stressful afternoon, I returned home at about 4:45pm after a long series of errands and activities with the kids and two wine glasses were lined up on the kitchen counter ready to be filled with cold and refreshing Pinot Grigio. Ahh…
We went shopping! (The shopaholic apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Where my weakness is Anthropologie, Grandma’s is bags. Expensive ones.) One day, we shopped at Nordstrom and had lunch at Café Bistro @ Nordstrom, and on another day, we shopped at Bloomies and had lunch at their 59th& Lex Café. We were ladies who lunch!
We saw “The Descendants,” an award winning, Oscar nominated film. (Regrettably, the last movie I saw in the theater was “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked,” and the only award that movie has a chance of winning is a Razzie.) Our matinee adventure was awesome. There was no animation and no child sitting in my lap in the theater. In fact, there were no children insight! It was the ultimate daytime Mama-escape, and it included popcorn!
Of course, the most bestest part about Grandma Irene’s visit was the time she spent with Dylan and Riley. The day before she left, Dylan came home from school and said, “Grandma, I’m going to miss you so much,” and the morning she left, he asked me what day of the week she was coming back. Riley had few words, but his (adorable) lower lip pout told the story of a little boy who would miss his Grandma with all his heart.
Speaking of hearts, I often tell the boys that even if I’m not with them, I’m always in their hearts. Right now, Grandma Irene is in all of our hearts (and the Skittles incident has been forgiven).
The Runaway Mama by Jen Gregory 