Weekend with the Boy

Brendan and I had a good weekend. He's funny and entertaining. We went to a few places where he could play and visited Paige and Carl and Mother Saturday. When we got home, we read some books together before bed. I have many of those books by Brian Cleary about the parts of speech, etc. I got Brendan some, too, and we always read some of them when he's here. A current favorite is Hairy, Scary, Ordinary, and the entire book is here. You don't have to say anything. My grandchildren realize some of the occupational hazards of having an English teacher for a grandmother. :-) They are really good books. I like the pronoun one best.


Ever since Brendan ran away from me at the mall, I've tried to explain to him about the possible danger of it without scaring him to death. It's important and unfortunately necessary but not easy to get across. I've been mentioning this off and on for years and told him to scream and yell loudly, "Help! Help! A stranger has me!" if someone tried to get him to go with them. Saturday we were at McDonald's not to eat but for him to play in that play area. On our way through there, he said in a regular voice, "I stranger has me." I told him not to say it unless it were actually true, and asked him if he knew what a stranger was. I'd bought The Berenstain Bears Learn About Strangers, so we read it, too. It was presented effectively, and there were funny parts we laughed about in it, too, because I used different voices and all that. He wanted to take the book home with him, so I let him. It has a list of rules that are helpful and effective on the last page.

Yesterday while we were at the almost defunct Bellevue Mall at Macy's not-good-at-all sale, he got away from me again. When I got him back with me, he looked around and asked me if various people were strangers. He's never met one and is so friendly with everyone, which is charming. It would be unbearable if anything ever happened to him, though. I wish we lived in a world where we could be open and trusting with everyone and didn't have to warn children about any of this.

We went to eat at O'Charley's after doing some shopping. He was funny with the waitress when she came to the table to ask us what we wanted to drink. Brendan said, "I'm hungry." She asked him what he wanted to eat, so he asked her what she had. After listening to his choices, he said he wanted all of them and repeated everything she listed in order. Brian told him to choose one, so he ordered the children's pizza, which incidentally is just the right size. (Can adults order from the children's menu there?) She asked what he wanted to drink and he answered "lemonade" immediately. She turned in his order while we were choosing. It was cute, sweet, and adorable ... or is that just how I see it? :-) Yep, I've crossed the line long ago into obnoxious grandmother with stories!

We had fun and sang and laughed a lot. We read Snoozers and sang it, too. He sang that Sandra Boynton song "Snuggle Puppy" and definitely is one himself!






Check out Melissa's post on her blog about Brendan's first non-relative or family friend birthday party yesterday afternoon. It sounds like so much fun, and her description of it is entertaining!