It’s good to have grandparents with big trees in their backyard

October 20, 2007 by Barbara.

We all ate Quaker oatmeal from packages for breakfast on Sunday. I don’t automatically pack them and bowls but I think I’ll start. With the ubiquitous coffee pots in hotel rooms, oatmeal from packages certainly holds attractions. They’re cheap, fast and don’t require a trip to a restaurant. Reid and I enjoy eating breakfast in restaurants and the Holiday Inn where we stayed has a “kids eat free” policy but sometimes we’re in a hurry or need something small to tide us over until brunch (like Sunday) and Ken never likes eating breakfast in a restaurant. On this particular day, Reid decided that she wanted the cinnamon and apple package that I’d brought for myself. Reid usually has the raisins and spice variety, just as Ken does. I went in search of spoons (another thing I’ll have to start packing routinely) and when I got back, Reid was eating her oatmeal while sitting on the bed. Eating on the bed was a treat in itself but it turned out that Reid had helped herself to some of my raisin oatmeal, too, while I was gone. What a fink!

With breakfast taken care of, Reid and I headed out for a swim. Does everyone look for hotels with pools or is just me? I never go away overnight without swim things for Reid and myself. I figure if we end up without a pool, we can always find a recreation centre. In any case, the Holiday Inn in Trenton has a nice little pool that opens at 8:00 on Sunday mornings and Reid and I are usually waiting for it when it does. Reid was doing her best waterbaby impression, playing on the steps into the pool and doing acrobatic moves using the railing in the centre of the steps. Reid loves to be “in control” in the pool and is much braver when she is. I convinced her to hold onto my neck while I swam again and let her ride along as I swam on my back. We went into the hot tub for a bit. Note, there was a sign recommending that young children not go in but I took it under advisement. The water isn’t that hot when compared with Reid’s usual bathwater and I was conscious of how long we were in. After we got out of the hot tub, Reid wanted to go back into the pool. I just couldn’t do it. I sat on the edge while she played on the steps, no more than half an arm’s length from me. I finally coaxed Reid into going to the sauna with me to dry off. We haven’t been in a sauna in a long time. There were many “why’s” involved. Why is it hot? Why is it made of wood? Why is it hot? Why are we here? Why is it hot? You understand. 2 year-olds say “no” and 3 year-olds say “why”. (Much better than saying certain words they hear from their dads when they drive, really.)

When we got back to the room, Ken was in the shower. Reid, of course, had to barge right in and say “hi”. It’s a well-honed instinct she has - introducing cold air and a door right where he needs to stand. Her enthusiasm at seeing him makes up for the inconvenience, I think.

We all walked over to see the fighter plane that is in the side yard of the hotel. We’ve stayed at this particular hotel many times but have never went over before. It’s a tribute to air force personnel. CFB Trenton, the airforce base where they bring the casualties back from Afghanistan, is just up the road. Of course, we took pictures. Ken wanted them for the virtual memorial project he works on and I just like taking pictures. Maybe I like taking pictures too much since Ken told me that I don’t share the camera well. (He didn’t say that exactly but that’s what he meant.)

With feet wet from the grass, we headed to our car and went to see Grandpa Keith and Granny Rhonda’s. They were impressed at how tall Reid is - it surprises us, too, sometimes at how quickly she is stretching out. Reid talks about being taller and when she’ll be taller than me quite a bit. Ken suggests that being taller than me isn’t a signigicant accomplishment.

Granny Rhonda had made a yummy brunch for us and we ate and chatted. Reid loves pork - bacon, sausage and ham as well as pork chops, pork tenderloin and probably anything else I offered her - and Granny had made both bacon and ham. To be polite, Reid ate some fried potatoes, eggs and toast but really she was there for the pork. We don’t have those things at home because I love them, too.

After brunch, Daddy and Grandpa Keith took Reid outside to the backyard. There are so many full grown trees that they have no end of hassle with leaves in the pool. As you can imagine, this made for an amazingly good place to play on a fall weekend. Grandpa Keith had raked leaves recently and so Reid had a good pile of leaves to jump in. I went out for a bit to take some pictures and ended up in the same pile. It was a bit damp but since we have only the one tree and it is stingy with its leaves, I took what I could get. Soon enough, my fingers, nose and ears were getting cold and Daddy and Grandpa Keith seemed to be chilled, too. Reid protested, though, when we made her go back into the house.

She played and we visited and then she sweet talked Granny Rhonda into taking her back outside. Well, she probably made only one request. You know how grandparents are. They walked around, raked some more leaves and went back to the leaf pile. We had to go out and break the news that we needed to leave before Reid’s cold wet nose prompted her to come in.

We were back in the car at nap time, just like planned, and headed home to the kitties.

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