Grammasue!

This week we had a very special visit from Grandma Sue, or as Jack likes to call her, Grammasue! (pronounced excitedly with such emphasis on the last syllable that you could almost say gesundheit in response). Unfortunately Poppa was working and couldn't get away, but now that Grammasue has retired she can come visit us as often as she wants. And I hope she will!

My first plan was that we were going to take her up to Tahoe but when she got here she reminded me that she comes from the land of snow and wasn't especially eager to go see more snow, a minor detail that I had somehow overlooked. No matter- there's plenty to do around here! Maybe even more! We had one big outing a day and still didn't quite manage to show her everywhere we like to go. But we did show her Fairyland (which she had been to before, but is much more fun now that Jack's a little bigger) and the bird sanctuary at lake Merritt.



Sadie kept Grandma busy by demanding to walk everywhere. She will only tolerate being carried for so long now (and tolerates the stroller even less), until she wants to get down on her own two feet. Which is backbreaking work, to lean over her and hold her hands. I remember this stage with Jack, but I don't remember how long it lasts. I remember very little, it turns out, and the blog isn't especially helpful in this capacity. I'm not consistent enough.

On the weekend we took her to the Lawrence Hall of Science on one day and Tilden's Little Farm and Steam Trains the next.



It was our first time on the steam train and I don't know why we haven't done it sooner. I also don't know how, as many times as we'd been to Little Farm, we'd never been there on one of their petting zoo days. There were a gaggle of tweenage volunteers holding chickens, ducks and rabbits, and walking goats for people to pet. I think I've found Jack and Sadie's future jobs.

On Monday we went down to San Jose to visit Nana. This was where I stopped being fun and had to get back to work. I had some lingering revisions for my old job, on the report I started almost exactly a year ago-- in fact it was this very project that I was working on the day Sadie was born. As I started going into labor, I was finishing the slides for a prospectus talk I was clearly not going to give (on account of the going into labor) but still had to finish so my magnanimous coworker could give it for me (thanks Julie!). Funny little bookends, that are much more humorous to me now that I'm finally finally all done with it. But while I was pounding my head against my computer, trying to please five different reviewers with five different agendas, Jack worked diligently with his grandma and nana to get his valentines done. 

It was very good that we were at nana's house because she has much more craft supplies than I do, and the next day at school was valentine's day, and mommy had no time to go to the store to buy valentines! So this worked out beautifully, and I think he got extra points at school for making them himself. This was Jack's first valentine's day that he legitimately celebrated and I had no idea how excited he would be. He loved all the cards he got from his friends, almost more than the candy. Okay he liked the candy too. So did Sadie. This was Sadie's first valentine's day, period, and she celebrated with gusto. She is totally ready to eat candy like a big girl, she wanted me to know. Poppa (via Grandma) bought them both heart boxes of candy and there were a couple days in a row where it was a real struggle not to eat chocolate for dinner.

(Nobody struggled with that more than me.)