Energizer Cubby

I have this sign hanging on my dining room wall. I did NOT buy it; it was a gift from Young Man and Mama Bear.

But it's relevant as Cubby spent the weekend with us while Young Man and Mama Bear visited friends in Wisconsin.  I forgot how much energy toddlers have...and grammas don’t!

We played with the Tupperware shape ball 100 times, listened to 1000 nursery rhymes on Pandora, washed hands 10,000 times, and drew 1,000,000 sheep, Buddy, Chewy, and Shannon pictures.

Okay, yeah, that’s an exaggeration...but you get the idea.  

It isn’t that she is naughty, because she’s not.  She doesn’t sass, doesn’t throw tantrums, doesn’t talk back (except that one time when I had to count to three and swat her butt, but who’s keeping score), and she goes to bed without a fuss.  

She is--like every other toddler out there--busy, busy, busy.  I could actually see her learning while she was here.  When she came on Friday morning, the shape ball was beyond her capabilities.  By Saturday, she could get the shapes put in if I pointed out where they went.  By Sunday afternoon, she was doing it all on her own.  That’s amazing to me.  

And vocabulary?!  Whoa...unbelievable!  The new phrase she picked up from me this weekend was what the heck...except she doesn’t get the “what” on there and it just comes out “the heck”?  And giggle like a goon!

She’s got a prankster’s soul.  She figured out if she looked at me and said “Boo” that I would jump and gasp, so she did that every chance and then say, “Shannon funny.”  Yep kid, you’re a barrel of monkeys!

She is devoted to her dog, Chewy.  Sometimes Chewy appreciates that and sometimes he doesn’t.  If she wanted to go downstairs and play (I had a dishpan of water with a measuring cup for her to play with), she would take my hand and head for the stairs, but before starting down, she would look around and say, “C’mon Chewy!”  Freaking adorable.  

She thinks Captain is still in harvest mode because when he was outside, she would randomly say, “Nampa combine corn.”  Okay, sure...if that makes you happy.

We found out she doesn’t like alarm-type noises...the microwave beeping when it’s done or the dryer buzzing when it’s done, but what really drove her into a tizzy was the smoke alarms going off when we were making pizza.  I can relate; smoke alarms tend to throw me into a tizzy too.

Diane and I took her to the Children’s Museum in Rochester for the exhibit about Clifford the Big Red Dog.  There were a whole passel of kids there, and I got to be a proud Gramma when I saw her play nice with everyone, even giving hugs whether the receiver wanted it or not!  She shared and took her turn without problem.  

The biggest snit we saw from her was when it was time to go and she did NOT want to leave.  I had to bribe her out of the museum with a promise to go home and see Chewy.  

All in all, it was a very pleasant weekend full of new memories with Cubby.  It reminded me that we are extremely lucky to have our children living nearby!