Lilly, "It's A Head!"

"Stay."  she decreed it!  Miss Lilly, the only granddaughter, isn't yet 2 years old.  Darling hubby and I had 6 boys, ne'er a girl.  So this little girl is a delight.  She'd been to her maternal grandmothers for the day, her daddy had picked her up, and they had stopped here for a quick visit.  Usually her dad wants a motor or a tractor part from the barn, or he wants advice from darling hubby.  

Miss Lilly was airlifted via daddy's arms from her safely secured car seat to the ground.  No taller than a bean sprout, she toddled to the gate, blonde hair bobbing, came up the steps, put one hand on the left door frame and the other on the right door frame, lifted one little pink jelly sandaled foot to come on in, and very clearly decreed, "Stay."

Ah, my heart got all gooey filled with sweet love.

We had bought Miss Lilly a Little Tykes red and yellow car from the flea market north of us.  You've seen 'em.  They look like a miniature VW bug, supposedly a cross between that and a Flintstones car.  It’s called a Cozy Coupe.  

At this age Miss Lilly mostly says one word, like drink, or bye-bye.  So she said, "car" and off we go.  Spoiling?  Who me?  LOL, YES, ME!

She loves to get in and "shut the door."  Then we go all over the cemented play area, a play area our boys  in their youth labeled The Slab.  She's pushed.  She doesn't yet know how to alternate feet to make it go on her own, so, she's pushed.  At a turn at the corner she heard a bird.  Her eyes opened a bit, she slightly tilted her head, and she said, "Bird".  Then she utters a full sentence, she totally gets out of her car, toddles back to me, looks up into the heavens, and says, "The birds up in the sky."

Aw, my grandbaby can talk!  And see afar!  And make connections!

My mother gave me a small black and white Panda rug when Clint was a baby.  Clint is Miss Lilly's dad.  I had Miss Lilly's dad's picture taken on the Panda rug.  When I got the Panda  down to offer it to them, it had an age spot which I then thoroughly cleaned.  When Miss Lilly came to visit it was draped over the side of the tub drying.  She loves a bathroom because of the tub.  She loves swimming, and rubber tub toys, and washable paints, all things tubby.

I was in the bathroom when the door gently opened.  Miss Lilly came on in.  She looked around.  She went to the tub.  She became excited, "Hi-i-i-i".   I looked back at her, why's she saying "Hi-i-i-i"?  Well, it wasn't to greet me, she was talking to Panda!  Durn.  Then she reached out her arms, towards the Panda, and pled, "I hold him?” “Peez.”

Ahh, shucks, despite her preference for the bear, I still love the girl, she has manners.

Years ago, I got this idea of drawing a ghost without a body, and I put magnets on the back of each part.  The head got a magnet, the two arms and hands each got a magnet, and the wispy tail got a magnet.  That way when I pinned a piece of paper to the fridge with the magnets it would look like it was held there by a ghost.  Those pieces have been tucked to the side of the fridge.  

Well, Miss Lilly loves magnets.  She has her own alphabet set on her mother's fridge.  I began pulling out my magnets, the Ireland cottage, the sunflower, the little frog, and the ghost parts.  She was carefree, and innocently playing with them all, and especially the frog.   Remember, she's not yet 2 y.o., and she hasn't been speaking in full sentences.

Bam!  Her eyes lit upon the ghost.  She snatched the biggest piece, turned quickly to her mother, and exclaimed in her baby high-pitched sing-song voice, "It's a head!"

Can I hold her?  Peez.  I want to hold her!

Speaking Of Sandwiches - PUNCH

SPEAKING OF SANDWICHES 

“Are you all hungry?”  said a dad standing in the middle of the food court at the local county fair.  

“Elephant Ears $3.00” read the sign near him.   There was the Christian Church booth selling sloppy Joes and brewed tea, the New Heights 4-H club selling Walking Tacos, Whiz Kids hawking corn on the cob, and the Baptist Church advertising funnel cakes and deep fried Oreos.  

In this instance, just outside the Producer’s Tent, the dad was asking his wife and four daughters of stair-step ages, “Are you all hungry?”  It was a resounding chorus of unanimous agreement, “Yes!” “Yes!”  “Yes!”

Then the dad, looking at the a-frame menu sign of various meat sandwiches asked, “Do you want lamb burgers?”  And I had to laugh out loud as I heard every single female in his family with the very same tenor of unanimous accord declare, “No!” “No!” “No!”

“How do you make sloppy Joes?”  Spencer asked when I answered the phone.  This single son lives 20 miles away in his own home and enjoys learning to cook for himself.

“Do you have the ground beef?  How much?”  I asked.

“Yes, one pound.”

“Fry it in minced onion with a bit of salt.  Do you have some Worcestershire sauce, around a couple tablespoons?  How about some mustard, a good squirt, and brown sugar, a nice sized sprinkle?”

“Yes.  How much did you say?”

“I’m sorry Spencer, I don’t measure.  You’ll just have to taste it periodically as you’re adding ingredients and spices.  Don’t forget the ketchup.”

Next night, “How were the sloppy Joes, Spencer?” I asked while on the cell phone with him.  

He replied, “It was good.  I tasted it and it tasted just like “mom’s sloppy Joes”. 

“Good, I’m glad it turned out well.”  

Then he revealed the kicker, “Yah, it was really good.  I added some hot Louisiana sauce and it had punch!”

And there ya have it -- the bad, "no, no, no", the good "just like mom's" and the punch --  NOT fruit drink Hawaiian but...Louisiana Hot Sauce!