Missing the Grands

I still feel disappointed when I walk into the kitchen in the wee hours before dawn to find that my mom and dad and Pua are not, in fact, sitting around the kitchen table iPad-ing and coffee sipping and Sudoku-puzzling. The grandparents (plus Grandma Pua - or, as Anika coined her, "Grandma Poof-uh") were here for a lovely birthday-Christmas celebration week, and besides the chilly weather outside (sorry to say, guys, it's back into the 50s again) we had a wonderful time. Both kids have been telling me that they miss their grandpa and grandma and would like to see them again soon - Anika requests them at her birthday party tomorrow, and Reni wants them to come put presents under the tree instead of Santa doing it - and I can't help but feel the same way.

Some of the highlights we can tell the kids to embarrass them when they're older:

- Grandma Pua was home with Anika and UPS rang the doorbell. We have a big, antique wooden door/gate that separates us from deliveries, and it was so cold that one of the deadbolts was stuck. "Hold on a moment, I am opening the door but it might take awhile," Pua yelled through the stucco fence to the delivery guy. "It's frozen." "I know!" said Anika. "I will go get Reni's hammer! Then we can open it!" Off like a shot she goes, and Pua and the UPS guy wait patiently. Anika returns a moment later with a cloth hammer from the tool set that I have deemed safe enough to leave within the kids' reach.

- Grandpa sat down at the piano bench to relax, and Anika, as she is wont to do, jumped into his lap with a smile. Seeing the chance at a potentially cute photo, I ran to get my camera, and when I got back, Reni was climbing into Grandpa's lap too. Then Grandma jumped into the picture, and I was snapping happily (and trying to get the kids to actually look AT the camera) when I realized Reni wasn't wearing any pants. Nor was he wearing a diaper.

- During same photo session, everyone said "cheese" and Reni added, helpfully, "POOP!" Anika thought that was HILARIOUS and then they just started giggling and shouting "cheese poop!" That is how we got those smiles at the top of my blog. Thanks to poop.

- Reni came with me to bring Grandma and Grandpa to the airport, and he insisted on bringing his roll-along suitcase, too. As I dropped them at the curb and they gathered their luggage and said goodbye, Reni started crying. "I want to go on the airplane with Grandma and Grandpa too!" he wailed. Guess he thought we were going with them.

- When I got home from the airport, Anika came bounding down the hallway with a huge smile, then stopped in her tracks. "Where are Grandma and Grandpa?" she asked. I told her that they had to go home. "But why can't they live here?" she asked. "They have their room upstairs all ready for them. I didn't mess it up." She looked at me, earnestly, and said, "well, only a little bit."