Adventures in Grandparenting

We arrived Monday night in Austin to babysit Leili and Cyrus.  Ted & Sara have had a trip to Las Vegas planned for quite a while to celebrate Sara's 30th birthday.  Many of their friends are joining them, as well as Christy and Cathy.

I will periodically post some comments about how things are going as the week transpires.

Tuesday, Ted & Sara left in the morning.  Leili was at preschool and was dropped back home at about 1:15 pm.  By then, I had had Cyrus on my own for a few hours while Chuck was getting the kids to the airport.  I fed him lunch and then put him down for his nap.  By the way, this kid has no "off switch" when it comes to eating.  He had fish sticks, broccoli, and grapes for lunch.  He started crying when he was all done until I figured out he wanted more fish sticks.  Once I gave him more fish sticks he was as happy as a clam.  Leili had already had her lunch at school, so she had her "chocolate milk" (Pediasure) just before her nap.  Both kids were tired and went down well.  Chuck took a business conference call and I caught up on email.

After their naps, we played with the kids "up high" until dinner.  That's Leili's term for the family room which is upstairs.  It's a great place to entertain them because they have most of their toys there and it's got a nice baby gate to contain them. 

After dinner, (mac & cheese !! Yeah, says Leili) we spent time in the back yard playing with bubbles and spraying the yard plants with water. (Leili's idea -- using a plastic spray bottle)  Cyrus was enthralled with the grass and kept wanting me to help him walk around the yard.  He isn't quite confident enough to walk on his own yet.  He wants someone to hold on to his hand at all times, but he is really close to walking on his own.  The down side is that he is often not content to just crawl around.  He insists on walking upright so it's a constant commitment to help him.  (The video below is from the day before, and I can't figure out how to rotate it, but it gives you the idea)

Once they were tired out (or was it us?) we brought them in for baths.  Both kids loved their baths so it was fun.  Finally, by about 8:30 pm we had them both in bed for the night.  Leili had a few times when she got weepy and "wanted her mommy" but they were short-lived --less than two minutes each.  All in all, we think our first day went really well.