My (Second) Date With Emily

Yes, it's happening again. I am dating my grandchildren. Last time I let them pick the place to eat, the activity, and the place for dessert. This time it's more laid back, just spending some easy time together doing what they like, eating at home and then spending the night. The point here is time for just the two of us.

Previously it was youngest to oldest, this time we reversed it so the first one up was Emily! I wish I could say there'd be pictures but it didn't happen with Emily so I posted a recent picture from her first day of soccer. Hopefully I'll be better with pictures of the other four.

I picked Emily up after work and we headed to the bookstore because I owed her a new book. The reason I owed her a new book is that I bribe her to sing with the hand motions at AWANA each week. I know, bribing your grandchild to sing praises to God isn't really cool, but I'm okay with that. My reason for bribing her is to bring her out of her shell of shyness about it. If you know Emily, she's not normally a shy person, but for some reason she's embarrassed and just positive that the other 75 kids will all stop singing and doing their hand motions just to watch her!! Silly girl! So last week I had her doing 3 of the 5 praise songs - with the full hand motions! Toward the end of the last song I thought, wow, she's really getting into this, I'm so proud of her!! That moment was short-lived, however, when at the utterance of the final word of the last song she turned to me and said, "Now how many books did I earn for doing the 3 songs??" Oh well, she did her part and that's what counts, right?

But I digress...back to date night.

Emily picked out a reading book and an American Girl game book and much to my surprise we made it all the way up to the counter to pay without her changing her mind. She's like me, a bookstore holds way too much temptation every step of the way through the store. After we paid, we headed to Winco to get our ingredients for the dinner she wanted to make, strawberry crepes with bacon. She chose "ant logs" for a snack later (peanut butter filled celery with cran-raisins on top), Sunny Delight Punch to drink, and ice cream from Rite Aid for a treat. (Can anyone say SUGAR here?? My apologies to mom and dad for that one.)

On the way home she chatted at me with randomness in a way that only Emily can. She told me that in a book someone named their dog after their best friend's last name, so if she ever had a dog, she'd name it Wilburn after Tessa. She told me that if she ever goes on a cruise ship she's going straight to the computer lab and is staying there all day! Really? Who wants to be in a computer lab on a cruise ship?? She told me several riddles that I never got, then told me she didn't know the answers to them either. I could go on and on, but you can see our conversation stayed interesting.

Once home, we put on our aprons and made the crepes. Now this is where Emily shows how adaptable she can be. Allyson has a raging ear infection which got so much worse by the evening that Jamie and Mike were trying to find a clinic to get her into. Of course none were open after about 6:30 so while we were making crepes, I was on the computer and phone trying to find a clinic that was open while Jamie was in her car looking for one after the first one didn't work out. Emily seemed oblivious that the evening wasn't about her at that point. She finished up her crepe assembly line and sat down to read while I was doing my computer thing. I love that girl, she's just versatile that way, even saying, "Ohhhh, poor Ally!" Hugs for Emily!

After Ally's situation was handled, Emily's crepes were ready. She asked if she could eat while she watched a movie. She chose one I had taped in our bedroom so we got her situated on our bed with crepes and punch and started her movie. Yes, I actually let her eat all of it on our bed because I'm Cool Nana. I have a reputation to maintain!

She finished dinner and we headed to Rite-Aid for ice cream, then back home to finish her movie. After that, she browsed through her books, telling me about all the games in the book and how they worked. Because it was a work night for me, that was the end of date night. I think I fell asleep before she did. She's a night owl so I let her read to her heart's content. I returned her home before work the next morning.

Next up...Allyson, and we already have a plan. (Must remember camera...)