Taking Uncle Roger’s magic van on an adventure

December 13, 2007 by Barbara.

I invited Aunt Karin over to help wake up Reid on Thursday morning. I thought she’d stay for breakfast but she popped in to kiss and tickle Reid and then zoomed back to her own house to wake up Shea. I bet he didn’t get the kisses and tickles, poor kid. Reid wasn’t ready to be awake but with her late night on Wednesday, it seemed a good idea to try again to reset Reid’s internal clock.

I did take pity on Reid and let her watch a few shows in the morning. I never missed Treehouse before but now that Grandma Joyce has satellite service, I have to say it comes in handy. I had time to finish the Caramel Shortbread that I started on Tuesday. The recipe is easy enough but it requires cooling between layers and I’m easily distractable at the best of times. I considered not finishing since I’d had more than I should have at Aunt Pam’s but I felt I owed it to Grandma Joyce who had been taking such good care of us. I even planned to sacrifice and eat some of the cookies, too.

Aunt Lisa, Megan and Damien stopped by for a visit in the middle of their errands. Damien had been sick in the night but was a happy little guy for most of his visit. I wonder if he is like Reid and feels when he is with other kids. I’ve heard that the difference between an extrovert and an introvert is whether you feel recharged in a crowd or in solitude. Reid is a bit of both by that measure. She certainly has more energy in a crowd but sometimes demands to stay in and chill.

I took some pictures of Max Doggy in front of Grandma Joyce’s tree - all of the grandbabies were posing there, why not Max? He was a very well-behaved and patient fellow. He even wore the Santa hat without protest. I got a shot of him looking up as though entreating some higher power, “Please take this silly hat off of me.” A while after the formal session, I noticed that Max had been lured by the cloth bags that I’d left on the floor. He was curled in their midst and I added a few to complete the background and then took some more shots. I love taking pictures and suspect that Reid likes me to have other subjects to focus on. (Did you like the pun?)

Reid was still wearing her pajamas at 3:45 when Uncle Roger called to say when he would be over to pick us up. I got Reid dressed while explaining that her pajamas were indeed warm but not warm enough nor suitable for leaving the house. Uncle Roger, Auntie M and Danielle arrived in Uncle Roger’s fancy-schmancy commuter van. It’s a Town and Country with two video screens in the back that show DVDs or video games, a separate climate control for the back compartment and a screen in the front that shows a GPS map or telephone interface or pictures. I don’t know why one would put the pictures up there, but there you go. I’d brought along The Seventh Brother, a movie about a little dog named Tiny, and Reid was excited to watch it. Danielle was, too, since it brought back memories from her “childhood” (my word not hers). She was a good sport about being Reid’s pal despite the 11 year age difference.

We all went ice skate shopping at the sport store in Leamington. I was hoping for a pair for Reid since the ones she has seems small to me and another pair for me because my left skate cuts into the top of my foot (and I’m not a stoic, that which does not kill us type). There were no used skates that came remotely close to fitting Reid and the $99 new ones were too expensive for me to even want to touch. I tried a pair on that caused pain in a different part of my foot but I decided to stick with the pain that I’m familiar with. We checked at the Etcetra Shop and found some good skates for Reid to wear in a couple of years for only $2 but found no skates for right now.

After we’d finished our shopping, Uncle Roger asked Reid where she’d like to go for supper and she didn’t hesitate before saying, “Old McDonald’s.” We went to the new (at least to me), little McDonald’s in Kingsville and then went to Lakeside Park to see the Christmas light display. Reid and I were able to identify most of the shapes but were lucky to have Uncle Roger along to provide names for some of the characters. Reid doesn’t watch Disney movies and so we didn’t know the names of the lions in the Lion King and that sort of thing. My favourite were the “carousel” ponies. Reid scooted down the one hill on her bottom and Uncle Roger was wishing for a sled for her but Reid didn’t complain. Auntie M and Danielle walked ahead of us; I suspect they were hoping to stay warm by moving fast but it was a cold enough night that I’m not sure that their plan worked. Reid saw a good portion of the park from the vantage point of Uncle Roger’s shoulders. Even I carried her a bit though she is nearly too tall and big, especially when she is in her snow gear. We got back to the van and Reid was clamouring for the movie before everyone had had a chance to buckle their seatbelts. There are a few reasons why I wouldn’t want the dvd/screen option in a vehicle I drove regularly and this pestering would be the biggest one. Of course, Reid asks to watch videos on my iPod on the way to daycare when we get back from a roadtrip.

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