The
Waco arrival didn’t happen until a little after 10 p.m., so all the kids were
already asleep. It did give us a chance
to chat for a while with Josh and Christi.
Kind of debriefed some highlights of that final harrowing short cut we
had just been on. I think we were all
ready to get some sleep, though.
The
next day we remembered that we had purchased a gift for Christi’s birthday in
that Ozarkland shop we were in (the one
with the big metal chickens for sale).
But we didn’t have a bag to put it in, so we made a quick Target run (That’s kind of like a WalMart run in
Galveston. Target is about a mile from
their house). Right away, Chris
found a bag and some of that frufie paper that sticks up out of it to hide the
actual gift. But then we had to do a
little walking. You know, get in at
least a fraction of the steps we had been logging each day (when we weren’t stuck in the car for seven
hours). Lo and behold, she found a
purse that she liked. She’s been looking
for one for at least a year. And shock
number two … she actually bought it.
This being on vacation has really gotten to her.
In
the afternoon we did a little babysitting.
I mean a “little” babysitting.
Josh was at work, and Christi and the boys went somewhere (Somewhere that included a place where they
could each don a horrifying mask and then send me a picture addressed simply to
“Hi, DadDad”). That left AnnaGrace
with us. Tough job, but someone had to
do it. The highlight of the first half
of our duty time was watching AnnaGrace deal with her babies. When it came time to change their diaper, she
ran into her room and came back with … a pair of winter gloves. Can’t change a diaper without gloves. Unsanitary and all.
At
one point Chris asked if I would keep a closer watch on the youngster while she
went in the other room to hook her phone up to the charger. A reasonable request since AnnaGrace had been
scrolling through her pictures for a long time.
However, a few minutes after she disappeared, I realized that her phone
was sitting on the couch beside me.
Hmm. I grabbed it and walked in
to see what was up, followed closely by my little charge. I found Chris crashed out on the bed, snoring
peacefully. Uh huh.
So
now it was just the two of us. I think I
did pretty well. We had sort of a
modified tea party. She brought in the
teapot and a cup. I picked up a stuffed
dog with a really long tongue hanging out.
When she handed me a cup, of course I offered it first to the
doggie. Good manners, you know. And he whipped that tongue into the cup and
slurped his way to the bottom in about a second and a half. And AnnaGrace, being the consummate hostess
that she is, poured him some more. We
laughed and giggled as that dog drank up cup after cup from the never-ending
teapot. Next she disappeared into her
room. I waited in intense
anticipation. And soon she returned …
with a sock. One sock. Purple, I think. She sat down and held up her foot, so I
slipped the sock on. She then ran back
into her room. I assumed she went to get
the other sock. Silly me. She returned with a shoe. One shoe.
And she held up her other foot.
So I helped her get it on. And
she was pleased as punch. Not sure how
pleased her Mom was when she saw it, though, but hey, you left her alone with
me. We concentrate on the things that
matter, not … shoes.
Oh,
and I almost forgot … I plugged in Chris’ phone. Multi-tasking.
Psalms
104:1 says, “Praise the Lord, O my
soul. O Lord my God, you are very great;
you are clothed with splendor and majesty.”
Father,
thank you for one-on-one kiddo times.
Amen.
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