After reading Marchelle's latest regarding her conversation with Maya I thought I would share my conversation with Kalie from the other night when we babysat her as Megan and Charlie went bowling with some friends in their ward. This is from a grandfather's perspective, mind you, so now I know what G/G Richins were going through with our kids, Marchelle, Nathan, Derek, Shaun and Megan and they always did it so willingly as if they really enjoyed it!!!!Kalie, "C'mon paka" as she grabs my fingers pulling me back towards the game room. (If you haven't figured out what 'paka' means, it means Grandpa)
GPa, "Okay". (here's where it gets interesting...)
Kalie, "bele, bele, bele, happy..."
GPa, "Oh, you want to see happy?" (that's her cue to watch Happy Feet)
Kalie, "Happy, happy, bele, bele, here, bele, bele, bele, sit here, umalimyma..."
GPa, "Huh....!"
Kalie, She is grabbing a puzzle and wants to go back to the kitchen to do it on the table, "Puzzle, bele shuma mima treats paka." Back to the kitchen we go.
As we're going I'm saying, "Don't you want to watch Happy?"
Kalie, "Treat"
GPa, "Oh how 'bout this puzzle first!"
Kalie, "Paka, treat".
GPa, (Why am I such a sucker!!) "Okay...", "Ready to do this puzzle??" We open the hyper-bag and then it's back to the game room!!
Kalie, "bele, bele, bele, shhmashhma". She grabs another puzzle and I'm thinking, what about that other puzzle back in the kitchen! Back and forth we go for the next 20 minutes. Each time I'm looking at Maureen with those 'Rescue me' look in my eyes.
GPa, "Phew, grandpa needs to sit down."
Kalie, "C'mon, paka...." back we go to the game room. Happy Feet is well into midway point,, we've watched maybe 3 min. total and I'm thinking, wait a minute!!!!....this the good part!!! Now I'm chasing her back into the living room, because I'm now the monster! We run around the couch a couple of times, she stops and gets a drink of milk and then we start again! Kaile, then chases the dog all the while grabbing his toy and throwing it so he can fetch it.
Kalie, "Ohhhh noooooo! bele, bele, bele, c'mon paka, paka, paka.....paka"
GPa, "What does she want?" as I look at Maureen. Grabbing my fingers again, we go back to the game room. My mind is saying, "noooo not again!", My body is saying, "you're not gonna last much longer buddy!" However, because I would do anything and everything possible for these little ones,...I go.
Kalie, "Chanted?...Chanted?" (That's another movie, "Enchanted".)
GPa, "What about Happy?", "Don't you want to finish 'Happy'?"
Kalie, "No!", "Chanted"
GPa, "Hey....Babes!!!! it's your turn!!!!!!"
GPa, "Grandma is gonna watch 'Chanted' with you, okay?!?!?" Maureen rescues me, I go back and turn on the Olympics, they don't look nearly as tired as I feel!! Bless your hearts, G/G Richins! *footnote - Kalie is getting much better at putting words together that are increasingly becoming more understandable and maybe grandma and grandpa are in training and just gearing up for Christmas when all 4 grandkids will be together! Hopefully, we'll have this toddler grammer down by then!!!!
So after Bear Lake, it is usually tradition to go fishing at "our spot". This time we decided that we would first start out at a "different spot", which we did and were able to catch a couple of nice ones. Shaun wasn't able to go because of school and work. He and Jamie had already missed some school going to Bear Lake, so it was just Derek and I. We ended up having a pretty good day, noting that if we had originally gone to "our spot" we would have been home with our feet up drinking lemonade 3 hrs. earlier. Ohhhhh, but we wouldn't have had "the experience!!!" Most of the fish were in this range.