Daffodils

Ellie, Great-Grandma Jessie, and Robbie

(and the daffodils that nearly killed me)

This morning we went over to visit my grandmother Jessie at the nursing home for the first time. Both kids were so well behaved, thank goodness! I had 10 lbs of snacks and juice and toys packed in the diaper bag, just in case they got antsy. But they did great. Both told their great grandma that they loved her, and each gave her a kiss and hug when we arrived AND as we were leaving. I had Robbie carry in the daffodil bouquet we brought for Jessie, and as we walked into the main sitting area where she was, her face lit up. I actually wasn't expecting her to recognize or remember who we were, but I was pleasantly surprised by how alert and animated she was during our time together.

I look forward to taking the kids over on a regular basis. It was so sweet to see how much Jessie enjoyed our visit, and we really were the main entertainment for the other 20 residents downstairs as well (and thankfully not in a negative way)! Everyone came over to say hi, try to make the kids laugh, ask them questions, and just watch them play. It's amazing how much joy little ones can bring to an environment like a nursing home. I'm thankful that it's just 5 minutes from our home.

There's a little story behind the daffodils that may or may not involve Ellie sneaking away from me just inside the entrance of Whole Foods as I put the flowers into a plastic sleeve and turned around to find her gone. After checking just outside the doors near the street first and coming up empty, I ran in what felt like circles around the front of the store trying to locate Ellie while loosely keeping track of Robbie's whereabouts. I completely abandoned my purse in the shopping cart and an older woman stayed by it as she saw what was unfolding. I eventually found Ellie standing in front of the fish tank, and scooped her up and deposited her into the large part of the shopping cart, thanking the sweet woman who withheld judgement and kindly offered that everyone's been in my shoes and she just didn't want my purse to be stolen. Then we laughed about the heart attack I nearly had, and I clung to the handle of the cart and begged Robbie not to touch the pyramid of organic apples as I waited out a nice little round of contractions.