SATURDAY WITH MAKIAH AND NAOMI

The day started early this morning, and by 4:00 p.m. I was surprised to find out that it wasn't 10:00 p.m.  I am finding that as a maturing grandparent, my level of ambition seems to increasingly exceed my level of energy.  

Nevertheless, today was totally fun, but Debra and I both were able to sneak in a nap at a very inconspicuous time.

Naomi and Makiah and SpongeBob SquarePants start the day together.

Something about SpongeBob brought a look of shock to Makiah's face.

Multi-tasking.

Nana makes pancakes.

Breakfast served.

Strawberries with whipped cream sweetened up the meal.

Breakfast done, teeth brushed.

Ready to leave the house on Oak Valley for a day of fun.

First stop: Family Fun Center.

Makiah and Naomi climb Cactus Jack's Playhouse.

The girls reach the window near the ceiling.

Sliding from top to bottom in the playhouse.

Running at the speed of light.

After leaving Cactus Jack's Playhouse, the girls spend some time playing arcade games.

Naomi and Makiah knock over some ducks.

Nana watches some cannon shooting.

Once the arcade games are finished, the girls negotiate for rewards with the tickets they earned from the games.

Time to leave the Family Fun Center.

Next stop:  The food court at the mall where the girls enjoyed a Wendy's meal.

Final stop:  The Movies.

Makiah and Naomi got to watch a 3-D feature, Monsters Inc.

Special glasses not only provide a 3-D effect, but they also allow grandparents to take a nap without grandchildren knowing about it.

Clean-up time.

FRIDAY NIGHT WITH MAKIAH AND NAOMI

Shortly after Naomi arrived at our place around 5:00 p.m. this evening, the three of us got into Debra's car and headed for the Vallo's house to pick up Makiah.  This was the first time these two had gotten together since Christmas of 2011.  

Once they saw each other, the level of enthusiasm in the room soared.  So did the volume.  Debra and I had moved into our new house last month partially because the neighborhood is quiet.  Very quiet.  This particular feature appealed to us because the quality of quietness is one of our core values and personal standards.

This weekend we chose to violate our personal standards.

Not only is this the first weekend we've had grandchildren spend the night in the house on Oak Valley, but our new dining room table was delivered today and tonight was the first time we've used it.

Makiah and Naomi play with the new doll house that Nana found at Goodwill earlier this week.  This doll house, when ready to put away, neatly folds to only five inches in thickness and easily stores on a closet shelf.

Under Nana's careful supervision, Makiah prepares to apply makeup to Naomi's face.

Makeup applied.

Naomi's turn to apply makeup to Makiah.

Makiah models her newly made up face.

Naomi models her makeup.  She also models her new fingernails:  Eight green ones and two pink ones.

Later in the evening we played "Memory".  Being a grownup offers no advantage in this game.  Not even close.  In fact, it is a liability.

Nana uses her memory to successfully find two matching cards, and Makiah celebrates by giving her a high-five.

As the evening winds down, the girls jammie up.

Before lights are turned out, Nana reads a good-night story to the girls.  I am not an expert in body language, but I suspect a little bit of Nana-worship might be going on here.

THE HANDOFF AND THE RIDE

This weekend Debra and I are hosting two five-year-old female granddaughters for two nights.  I left early from work today to meet Naomi at the halfway point between her house and ours.

After lunch on Sunday, I'll return her to the same place and I know I'll be exhausted because I already am.  But it's a good exhaustion.

Since Tim had to work today, Bethany brought the whole gang for Naomi's transfer from their van to my pickup.

Naomi leaves the van and enters the truck for the return trip to the house on Oak Valley.

We found snow on the trip.

Making a snowball.

The windup and the pitch.

By the time we got to Papa and Nana's place, Naomi was so excited that she could hardly stand it.

BEHIND THE SCENES IN BORIS' LABORATORY

My brother and sister and I are lucky if we can get together once every three or four years due to the distance that separates us, especially the distance to my brother who suffers by having to live in Hawaii.  Nevertheless, we do get together occasionally and those times are always coupled with fun and frivolity.

The last time we got together was in October when we met at my sister’s home, which is about an hour’s drive north of San Francisco. 

We had a specific agenda for our time together:
 

Make a video recording of  “The Monster Mash”.
 

Dean and Judy performed vocals along with the karaoke music.  I got to push the “on” and ”off” button on the camera while concealing my face under a Frankenstein mask.

We recorded several clips, which were later spliced together into a three-and-a-half minute video.  This video somehow failed to go viral on the Internet.  But the project did provide three siblings and a couple of friends with a day of fun, which is documented here:

WORKING IN THE NEW YEAR



I celebrated the New Year by working on our new home.  The garage has been a particular challenge and a source of annoyance.  Too much stuff and not enough room.  Boxes and plastic storage containers have been piled in corners and along walls since we moved.  The contents of the boxes have been mostly unknown since they've all been closed and stacked on top of each other.

 

This kind of disorganization runs against the very core of my being.  I just can't handle it.

 

So I celebrated the New Year by cleaning and straightening up the garage.  A couple of trips to The Home Depot provided the shelving material I needed and, within three days, the project was done. 

 

The garage is now as I have envisioned it.

 



 

The left side of the garage as it appeared on Sunday before I attacked it.

The right side of the garage on the same day.

The back wall.

My three ladders have been outside since our move because there has been no place in the garage to place them.

On Sunday afternoon, I moved all the boxes and storage containers away from the left wall so I could install some shelves.

Today the left side of the garage has shelves.  Also, all three ladders have moved indoors.

The back wall is organized.  A "Team Rad" sign was given to everyone where I work by a patient, who is also a sign maker, who completed his course of radiation treatments a few years ago. 

The right side of the garage, consisting mostly of tools, now has every tool on a peg, on a shelf, in a drawer or in a cupboard.

My garage is done. At least for now.

Both vehicles can also fit in the garage.

DOCUMENTARY MAKING (PART 2 OF 2)

Judy is the older of my two siblings and my only sister.  Just over a year ago, I created my very first music video to celebrate her entry into senior citizenship by parodying Don McLean's hit, Vincent, also known as Starry, Starry Night.  Judy's birthday video was called Scary, Scary Night since she was born on the day before Halloween.

That video got me started on what has become a bit of a tradition:  Making music videos for my siblings on their birthdays.

A year after Scary, Scary Night, Judy turned sixty-six, inspiring yet another birthday video, this time parodying Nat King Cole's hit, Route 66.  Judy's new video was called When You Turn 66, runs for only three minutes, but took tens of hours to create and can be seen here:

 

 

 

Like the video I made for Dean last summer to celebrate his entry into his seventh decade of life, In The Month of July, Judy's latest birthday video also needed a documentary attached to it in order for her to know the scope of my commitment to this project and to her:  The selection of a song to parody that has guitar chords suitable for a mediocre string picker, the rewriting of that song to make it specific to her birthday, the practicing and practicing of it until I finally got it as close to being right as I could ever get it, the recording of the song into a digital voice recorder and, finally, the video presentation to accompany the audio recording.

 

 

But this is all explained in the documentary, The Making of the Video - When You Turn 66, which is rated G (suitable for GERIATRIC audiences) and which can be seen here: