We had a quiet morning on Friday waiting for the grandparents to bring sister home. I teased MaryVic at the door who was not having any of it. “Who is it?” “MaryVic Nicholson, your daughter!”
She was happy to be home although at the same time she did not want to leave Grandmommas. We are starting to see her have some difficulty between 2 good choices and coming to the realization that you can not have both. She had a lot of fun at Grandmommas but missed everyone, even William. He was very excited to see her again.
Before everyone settled down, we loaded up and went to the Chophouse for lunch. The children mainly ate the sweet biscuits and butter. MaryVic would eat a bite of mac and cheese in exchange for playing with Momma each bite. The grown-ups made sure we had pennies for MaryVic and William to toss them in the waterfall after the meal. The coins are donated to the local Mercy Childrens Clinic.
We returned home for William’s nap time but were not lucky enough to have him fall asleep in the car. Apparently the arrival of the grandparents and MaryVic was too much excitement. He fell asleep Wednesday and Thursday while watching Curious George but not today. We had our first post-grandparents conflict with MaryVic who refused to settle down and started fussing over a toy. She and I did a short timeout together in her room.
After nap / quiet time was over, I loaded William up for a walk around the neighborhood. At first MaryVic didn’t want to go but she changed her mind. She rode her bike with training wheels while Daddy and I walked William. We did have a slight disaster with the bike helmet as I pinched her trying to get it on. Don’t you hate those pinches by clips like these! I bowed out and let Daddy put the helmet on her after she calmed down.
We had a nice time at the pond. No geese or ducks were present. We threw some cheerios in to see if any fish would bite. I guess they are still hiding at the bottom of the pond, waiting for the weather to make it’s mind up. Greg took pictures that are posted on the gallery web site.
I walked William around the pond and refereed Mary’s ‘Knock Daddy Over’ game. She starts at a certain point and then runs full force at him while he takes pictures. He changed locations so it was a challenge for her to get him. William became fussy so I got him to playing catch the willow tree branches which were blowing in the wind. He became really tickled while trying to grab them.
On the way home Grandmomma came back from a last minute Easter store run. We met her back at the house and MaryVic decided we needed to play ball. Greg put pesticide out on the lawn Thursday night as his part in the ‘great ant war’ so playing ball meant going back to the pond. We re-organized, blew up a giant rabbit, and everyone headed back to the pond.
We used a spot with three trees close enough to each other to be bases. Bases are a pretty loose concept to four year olds. We played a combination of baseball, chase and tag. First MaryVic hitting the ball off the tee and being chased around the bases, which evolved to all trees in the area in no certain order. Mom played tag first then Daddy took a turn. We also had turns at bat with MaryVic pitching. Grandmomma and William cheered from the sidelines.
MaryVic tired eventually and William became fussy as he wanted to play ball. There was a really sweet moment as MaryVic gave William the ball. It didn’t last long as she came to realize that he couldn’t pitch the ball to her from Grandmomma’s lap on the ground. “William, I Am Over Here!” It started to become cool and dark so we rounded her up to some protest and headed home.
Greg carried William home and he loved and played with Daddy all the way, peeking back at us. It was a lovely time and the kids had no problems falling asleep later in the evening!