A Few Days as a Grandparent

On Monday I needed to go to the Mall of America to a game store to see if I could find something to use for teaching in Poland. I decided that I might as well do a walk as long as I was there. Picked up the paperwork for this at a motel across the street.

I found some of the displays in Legoland to be new.

Found some Polish dishes in a store featuring things from Europe, along with some amber.

I took the next two pictures thinking they would be fun to use with the kids.

What do you think is in the picture above? Did you guess cupcakes?

And how the items in the picture below?

Did you guess dog treats?

About now my phone was fussing and I found text messages from my daughter asking me to take her to the doctor. I drove over to her apartment on the eastern edge of Saint Paul and then we went to the clinic in Woodbury.

Verdict -- baby would come soon, but just when is still an unknown. She asked me to drop her at a restaurant where her teen age daughter works, saying she would follow the doctor's advice to walk, by walking home the two blocks from the restaurant.

About 8 PM the phone was fussing again and I got a message asking if the two granddaughers could come stay with me. They arrived about 10:15 PM and we settled down for bed.

On Tuesday morning about 6:30 AM  I got a text message that my daughter and her husband were at the hospital. I took the two girls out for breakfast and then we went to a driver's license station for my older granddaughter wanted to take the test to get her driving permit. We found her driver's ed teacher had not signed the "blue card" correctly, so she called her school and found we could come there to pick up a new and correctly prepared card. Then the phone beeped again, and my granddaughter said, "Look, here's the baby's picture."

So we did the school stop, without success, and headed for the hospital. 

Here is my older granddaughter with her new baby brother. The next hours are a bit of a fog. The day didn't end until about midnight when I bedded down all three grandchildren in the living room.

On Wednesday morning, I took my grandson over to the hospital to spend the day with his mom and the baby, my son-in-law back at work already at 6 AM.

The two girls and I went to the Minnesota Zoo.

Here is my younger granddaughter engaged with views of otters.

Up in the farm area the girls spent some time with the goats.

We went to the cow milking demonstration. My younger granddaughter was very intrigued with this. She wanted me to take a photo with my phone and send it to her mom in the hospital.

We ate a late lunch and then headed the the hospital. I asked the question I really didn't want the answer to-- should I take my grandson back to his other grandmother's home where he has been staying? When I brought it up on Google Maps I found the trip was 18 miles and it would take 61 minutes to do it! Oh, the fun of driving across the Metro area during rush hour. Back to the hospital two hours later to get the girls and then we came home -- we were tired.

The next morning we got up and going in order to get to my older granddaughter's school where this time she got the blue card correctly prepared. Then I took her to work and then took the little one to a park to play.

About 2:00 PM I got everyone back home and came home and collapsed. I was so tired -- particularly keeping up with a four-year-old who is very normal -- meaning she talks all the time!!!

Woke up at 2 AM and was just about to sleep when a humdinger of a thunderstorm moved through the city. I have large windows in both the living room and bedroom and it sounded for 20 minutes like hail was hitting the windows, but actually it was highly driven rain drops-- although there was hail in the storm.

Got up at 8 and had breakfast. Met with my son-in-law for a late lunch to give him all the things I had found that the girls had forgotten.

Off to a health clinic to pick up some supplies for my hearing aids. The first questions always asked are about one's address and phone number. Both were mysteriously wrong on my record. Took awhile to get that all straightened out.

And then finally to get my hair salon.

Coming home the weather began again to blow up a thunder storm.

The above buildings are at Fort Snelling and are the buildings used during World Wars I and II.

The above buildings are part Fort Snelling operated by the Minnesota Historical Society. Within this part of the fort it is 1832. The fort was sighted here because the bluff overlooks the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers. Sitting here one could control all the traffic.

And now home again for another driving rain storm.

I'm delighted with the new little boy. He looks so very tiny -- did I forgot the size of a baby? He arrived weighing 7 lbs, 15 oz -- he's not tiny.

Off to Poland on Monday for a rest! More adventures to come!!