"Why, Soitenly!"

The big kids left yesterday morning to spend a few days in Hawaii. One of these days Jan and I hope to do that as well, but it won’t be this year. I remember when you and Dad went over for a couple of weeks … Dad came by the house a day or two before the trip so I could show him how to operate his new .35mm SLR camera. I explained as carefully as I could the two or three critical things to remember to get good, sharp, focused photographs.

I think I asked him to go through it so I would know he knew how to use it and he said that was not necessary. When you returned  from your trip, you had over 200 photographs developed and every one of them was out of focus! I guess you really can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

So we are keeping the grandkids during their absence, splitting the time with Heather’s mom. You would really like Heather’s family, including grandparents on both sides. Should be an interesting time to say the least. They are so much fun, but I’ve not stayed a night with them and we still have to run a business.

The twins haven’t done much to write about since my last letter other than Lillian (we call her Lils because that’s what Jackson calls her) finally decided she’d go ahead and crawl forward. She had the backward crawl down, but never seemed to be able to shift her weight off the leg she was sitting on to actually start a forward crawl. Logan has started climbing up the stairs, making it to the second riser with Jackson’s encouragement that he can do it! He’s also pulling himself up on anything within his reach.

I did dry, diaper, and put pajamas on the twins tonight after Janice bathed them. Lilly was okay other than she was tired and fussy. Logan? Trying to put a diaper on that boy is like trying to change the fan belt on a car with the motor running! He can arch his back and then twist away from you so fast, you don’t hardly realize he’s escaped! After putting his right foot through both arm holes, I finally got him dressed for bed. When they get sleepy, they go down amazingly fast! I have a bit more respect for all Josh and Heather deal with on a day to day basis. Make that a LOT more respect!

Jackson has picked up the habit of telling us, “Stop it!” Actually, he says that to just about everyone except me as I allow him to do whatever he desires. When I asked Heather where she thought he got that, she said she’d been paying closer attention to her interactions with Jackson and she was the culprit.

Anyway, Janice was on the “Stop it!” end of Jackson the other day and she told him, “Jackson, you don’t tell Granmama to stop. You say, ‘Please do this …’ or ‘Please do that,’ okay?” Jackson thought about it and said, “Okay, do that!” Cracked us all up.

He also has a tendency to add the word, “either” to his sentences. So we now hear him say, “Stop it! Either.” Most of the time, he uses his name rather than the personal pronoun, “I,” very much like scriptwriters did for Native American roles in the early days of television. Indians always said things like, “Tonto need wampum”* instead of “I need wampum.”

So Jackson will say, “Jackson go outside … either.” Of course, Josh and I picked up on the opportunity to add that to our sentences either. It’s just funny to observe how his mind works and puts things together.

That’s about it for now … sure wish we could share these stories via phone conversations. Every time they do something cute or funny I want so much to share it with you.

Much love . . .

* Some script translations / interpretations render “wampum” as “woman.” I guess it depends on the context. Either.