Folding Clothes with the Little One

This is a story about my little niece. She was 5 at the time of this story. Very cute and soft spoken.  She loves to fold clothes with me. I don’t think it is the clothes, as much as having my undivided attention.

There are lots of kids in her family and “one on one”  time is on short supply for her.

She always asks me if I have any clothes to fold. One day her grandmother (also the grandmother of my kids) had folded all of my clothes and left them on top of the washer.

Obviously she was trying to be being helpful…but Jade saw them and got all teary eyed. I thought my heart might break right there. 

All this sadness due to a pile of folded clothes….whatever to do?

I told her not worry because I had more clothes upstairs to fold. She said “Really ?”

“yes” I told her “Wait here while I bring these clothes upstairs to my apartment.  Then I will find the unfolded ones. In a few minutes I will call you upstairs to help me fold.”

Well she was very pleased and I made my way up the stairs with the folded clothes. 

I wonder if you have figured this one out yet ?   How well do you know me from reading my blog? What did Aunt Annie do?

Yep. I dumped all those folded clothes all over the floor and messed them all up in a big pile all over the place ! It was fun too.

 My daughter who was 11 at the time, saw me doing that. She is used to seeing me do weird things, but she was still curious. I told her Jade wanted to fold the clothes but your Grandma had already folded them.

Oh ! My daughter thought it was a grand idea !

I called Jade upstairs and she was happy to help me fold them. We had a little chat about all kinds of things.

I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. She said, “A Mermaid”

If you Can’t Find the Ice Scraper…Stay Out of the Kitchen !

My teenage daughter and I got into a conversation about her driving soon. She is 18 and I have to take her to get her learner’s permit soon.

I began mentioning safety rules and things like that. It was raining outside, which made me want to talk to her about rules for driving on slippery roads.

Somehow this conversation went into funny stories about what NOT to do with the car.

I told her that my mother once could not find the ice scraper. She was late for work so she decided to improvise.

She went into the kitchen…yes the kitchen… What do you think her tool of choice was?

No. you didn’t guess it. A butter knife! Yes, she scraped the windshield of my step father’s black cadillac with red interior with a butter knife.

Needless to say, he was not too happy with all the scratches all over the windshield.

But then….my daughter said she could top my story!

She said that a few winters ago, her grandmother (my ex husband’s mother) did something worse than the butter knife to the windshield.

I thought..what could be worse?

My daughter said “It was MUCH worse !” 

Well, I was in suspense.

So, the story starts the same way that my story did. 

The windshield was full of ice. She could not find the ice scraper.

SO………

She went into the kitchen….yes the kitchen..

Nope, not a butter knife.

She got out a pot and boiled some water. Yes….here it comes..

She poured boiling water all over the frozen windshield !

Yes, it cracked. It cracked all over the place. It made a terrible noise, which is what she noticed first and then a little crack that just kept going. Then more cracks.

Needless to say,  Grandpa was not happy when he came home.

So, both of my daughter’s grandmothers wrecked their windshields when they could not find the ice scraper, and decided to seek tools from the kitchen. .my mother and my ex husband;s mother.

So, the moral to the story is one of the following.

1. When you think you have the best story about your relatives….someone can top you !

2. If you can’t find the ice scraper….Stay Out of the Kitchen !

Are Ponies Real?

My 18 year old daughter relayed this funny story to me today. She was spending time with her little 7 year old cousin. This is my niece, who is a very cute little girl.

My daughter recently was hired at her first job. She will be starting this coming week and of course is very excited. She was telling my little niece that when she got paid, she would be able to buy her a little gift, with her first paycheck.

My daughter was being silly with her and said  “I can get you something you will like, but not a ferris wheel or a pony.”

The little one looked at her and said, “I do not want a ferris wheel and ponies are not even real ! “

My daughter was kind of stunned and said to her  “You don’t think ponies are real?”

The little one said, “NO silly! You know that unicorns and ponies are not real ! “

At this point my 8 year old nephew chimed in with  ” Unicorns are too real !   I saw one in the yard one time ! “

The older brother who is 13 said  “That was a deer ! It was not a unicorn ! “

At this point in telling me the story, my daughter was laughing so hard she could hardly continue.

Apparently my daughter’s uncle was there are decided to chime in. He asked them,  “Are mermaids real?” 

“No,”  they said.

“Are horses real?”

“Yes,” they said

“Are zebras real?”

The little boy said, “Yes we saw a zebra at the zoo last year.”

To which his father, who has a goofy sort of sense of humor, said  “No. That was not a Zebra. It was a Zoobra. “

All of the kinds just stared at him and were not sure what to think.

Once my daughter stopped  laughing, then she went through all the animals with them. The fairy tale ones and the real ones. I guess they all had different opinions about which animals were real and which ones weren’t real.

It must be a funny land inside of a child’s mind.