"Sick Day" at Nana's house....

Let me just say that any of you who have had that special joy of having an eight-year-old boy in your life are going to understand exactly where I am coming from today. Recently my grandson was not feeling well enough to go to school.  Seriously. He didn't have a fever, but you could see in his eyes and when you listened to his cough, that it was not his best day.  Even when not quite up to par though, he has a certain undaunted energy level. He's eight. Enough said.

When he first came over to my house, we got organized -- put the Kleenex within reach, opened a small can of ginger ale for sipping and almost settled down to watch a movie when... he noticed a bug on the ceiling in the kitchen.  It was bothering him.  He thought he had seen it before in that exact same spot and knowing him, he probably had.  He wondered out loud if it were alive.  He simply could not settle down to a quiet time unless he knew.  So -- he took off his socks so that he wouldn't slip, and climbed up onto the counter-top to get a closer look. He is in that leggy/not quite grown into his feet stage - exceedingly and enviably nimble. (What was the name of that cute little guy in Jungle Book? Mowgli? Can you picture it?)  Anyway -- he planned most carefully.  He even had a paper towel in his hand to catch the bug when he dislodged it with the edge of a fly-swatter he had found somewhere in the laundry room. (I actually didn't even remember that I had a fly-swatter.) Anyway -- even after close examination with a magnifying glass, we were not sure if it were alive or not, but it floated gently off the paper towel and onto the leaves of a Day Lily plant when we took it outside to set it free. He thought it was alive. I pretended that it may have been.  That is sometimes what Nanas do. Right?  Maybe it was alive. 

By then his mind was working.  He didn't want to settle on the couch -- not even for a minute.  "You know what, Nana?  We should think of ideas for your blog. You write down the ideas that we think of and I will keep score."  And so it went...  For the next hour we came up with ideas.  He thought of the most. We considered several, including:

• War against dandelions and other weeds
• The idiosyncrasies of his family dog and cats (He gave several examples with great potential.)
• The highlights of his Uncle, Aunt and cousin's upcoming visit including playing Magic cards and having Nerf battles in the basement
• Recurring dreams  -- His are much more interesting than mine. He dreams of dragons in my basement and digging holes to China.  My recurring dream merely involves falling down some basement steps, and I haven't actually had that dream since grade school. How long ago was that?
• "Technobaby". That is what he sometimes calls his little sister who can figure out anything technological and has been able to since age two. She is four now. 
• The list could go on... and actually does for several pages of a notepad. I think I may have mentioned that we did this for an hour...or so.

I am sure you can tell which ideas belong to me and which ones to him. His are the really fun ones.  It was a great way to spend some time together.  We also enlisted the help of a friend who happened to stop in.  Her ideas could fuel several blogs.  It seems that her home has become well known as a good place to drop off stray cats if they don't find their own way to her home from the neighbors all by themselves.  There are currently three outside cats - Thomas and Torty 1 and Torty 2... and five indoor cats.  The house cats include the sibling kitties, Missy and Charlie, as well as Moggy, Fluffy, Beauty and Bobby Sox. Wait a minute -- that is six of the indoor variety - nine total. Either way -- each cat has an interesting story, and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We laughed a lot at the side stories of each, and I am entertaining the notion of writing a blog on what people choose to name their pets.  I have heard some great names in my day. My Mom told me once that they visited friends in Michigan whose Great Danes were named "Get off the Rug" and "You too".  Could that be true?

And so the day went...  It was lovely...  Laughter is great medicine for sure; some say it is the best medicine and have research to support that theory. I know it made the "sick day" at Nana's a lot of fun.  We all felt better by the end of the time together. Even when he doesn't feel "up to par" that child is a breath of fresh air and he always makes me laugh. It's just one of his talents.