Munchkin comments

Sunday, we attended Daron and Jamee's ward.

I went to the nursery and picked up Brigham at the end, a little early. When I walked in I said to the nursery teacher, because she did not know me, "Hi, I'm Brigham's grandpa. Can I take him?" Brigham heard me and looked up from his project and grinned and jumped up and grabbed my leg and yelled "BOPPY POOPY!" So, yes, I'm the right guy. I took him down the hall to the end and sat on a chair and put him on my knee and started playing a mixed up version of "ride the horsey go to town" where the horse falls up instead of down, and he corrects me and then violently falls down and howls with laughter. I was laughing so hard I was crying. Then....my leg got wet. Very wet. He emptied his bladder on my leg. He was soaked down the back of his pants to the floor and I was wet all over my knee and it reaked of uric acid and ammonia. Eew. He gets profoundly embarrassed when this happens and I felt bad so I took him down the hall to find the family and stayed behind him so nobody would see. It was slow going with the crowds and three-year-old-"Oh no my legs are chapping" steps. Then Loni found us in the nick of time and said "We're out in the car". Oh thank you, Lord. So we went home and I gave him a baking soda bath and put cream on his legs because he got chapped already from playing in the park after he had spilled water on his lap. Poor kid. And he just laughs.

Carter is being very very very good. What can I say more? When we told them Loni was coming, he just said "Loni's coming heaw?" and smiled and smiled and smiled and sat back and smiled. His girlfriend, lost and now returned to him. Mrs. Carter Andelin.

When we reminded Olivia that mom and dad were leaving the next day and that it was just going to be grandparents taking care of them, she said, "Tomorrow morning? LET THE SPOILING BEGIN!"

One day at the park, a little obnoxious immature, even for a 5 year old, boy named Dillon took over our hide and seek game. His mother was there trying to let him play as I observed that he had much older brothers up on the skateboard track and he had to be bossy to get anything at all his way. He is twice the size of Carter. Came up to my chest. I was patient with him and his mom finally had to call him down to make him share the equipment, but we gave him his turn to hide and seek. He, of course, found me because nothing hides me. It's not like Tennessee with three foot diameter trees to stand behind. Three inch slide poles and scrawny little "trees". Livvy was shouting to the boys, "MAKE SURE YOU HIDE FIRMLY IN THE TUNNEL SO HE CAN'T REACH YOU! FIRMLY IN THE MIDDLE!" Firmly? Really? Second grade, fifth grade vocabulary. We started a book by Astrid Lindgren, the author of the Pippi books, called "Mio, My Son" tonight. She and Carter loved the first chapter and Brigham tolerated it until the last page and then started tickling Carter. So we cut him loose to go charm the girls.

I took him to Cabela's while the others went to the movies. I wanted a pair of shoes they advertised for Christmas, and he wanted to shoot at the laser range. I'm telling you, I could pick up any chick I wanted with Brigham smiling at them and waving at everyone. Some Mexican gangbanger in an Oakland Raiders jacket walked by, smiled at Briggs and waved, and Briggs waved back. I could probably sit and drink Dos Equuis with The Most Interesting Man in the World in Juarez with him and come home safe.

During the shooting I realized he could not hold the rifle so I held it and aimed and told him when to pull the trigger. We cleaned up. Hit the wolf three times and each time it howls. He got a kick out of that. On way home I said, "Briggs, you did a great job shooting in there." He said, "Yeah, me. Not you." Pill.

We then went to Walmart to get him some new tennies. He was wearing the hand me downs from Carter which are too big. So I put some on him and slapped the velcro across and he gasped and his voice got real soft and he said, "Fit me! Me happy. Fit me!" You'd think he was Dobby the house elf and I'd just given him a sock and freed him.

When he got home I told him to tell everyone about shooting. He said, "Me shoot wofe. Go AH-WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" We had him tell that story several times because he actually throws his head back and howls like a wolf.

Today, Loni watched the kids while Cindy, Mom, and I went to Elko. I visited the weather office there and ate lunch with the boss and his wife and then drove around town. It's smaller than Morristown, but I think the setting is beautiful and the Ruby Mountains look like the Cascades or the Alps covered in snow. Breathtaking. There would be some trade offs but overall we think we could live there. There are two stakes of the church in the area. Morristown has two wards, barely. The winters are brutal, but shhhhhhhhhhh, don't tell Cindy I said that.