Yesterday was Ramona's first day at work and my first day to take care of Karsen --with Matthew--, but mostly me. Ramona has to be at work at 7a.m. so she brought sleeping Karsen downstairs to my bedroom at around 6:20a.m. She put him in bed with me, where we stayed until 7:30a.m. when we arose for the day. He is so sweet.

Then we went into Grammy's getting-ready-for- the-day groove which begins in my bathroom. Next, I say, "Let's make up Grammy's bed" and he rushes over to the bed and I make my bed. He usually looks out the window whileI put the finishing touches on my bed. Then I say, "Let's go feed the fish." at which point Karsen dashes to the door to the patio. As he fast-toddles, it is so cute, because he slants his head in the direction of the left turn to the door. It is sort of like when one is riding a bike and making a turn--"leaning into a curve"

I open the door to the patio and we go out and feed the fish. He is thrilled with this. Sometimes we stay out there for a while, but yesterday morning, he desired to" go get breakfast", so we did. I put in those quotation marks because this is what I ask him. Once, more he is fast-toddling to the door to return to the kitchen. Again, as he comes to the open area of the kitchen, he leans into a right curve as he enters the kitchen.

I prepared him oatmeal and milk, while I drank my protein drink. He continues to pull his hands from mine as we say the prayer before eating, but I believe, I can detect a bit less "tug" on his part, at the "Amen section" of the prayer. When he signals that he is through eating (He uses the sign language signal for "finished") , I get him out of the high chair. Sometimes I let him play while I clean up, as I have stated in prior posts, bit his time I said, "Lets go play with toys", and he fast-toddled to the family room.

I go around and turn on the lamps in the room as Karsen walks with me while I do this. Then I put in the Kidz Praise songs and he plays in his playpen. While Karsen is in his playpen, I begin to dust the furniture. It looks so pretty when it is shiny and freshly dusted. I also emptied trash cans and dust-mopped the foryer. At some point, I realize that Karsen needed a nap and I rocked him to sleep in the rocker. He napped for about an hour, while I watched "The View" on tv. When Karsen awoke, Matthew was interacting with us and playing with Karsen. I left to go to the bank and deposit some checks and go by Walgreens to pick up a prescription.

When I returned, it was time to fix Karsen's lunch. While Matthew was with Karsen, I fixed Karsen's Hamburger-Helper lunch and placed it in two dishes for it to cool. Matthew was preparing to feed Karsen. When I came in the kitchen, Matthew was feeding Karsen, and Matthew informed me that Karsen had grabbed the bowl on the counter and splattered one of the dishes of his lunch on the floor. I continued feeding Karsen while Matthew cleaned up the floor.

After lunch, Karsen returned to the family room and we played puzzles. He is very good at puzzles. He likes to dump three puzzles on the floor and then mix up the pieces and then put the pieces where they go. He is so good at puzzles. After about thirty minutes, I could tell he was ready for a nap and both of us went to bed for a nap.

He slept for a little under two hours. BTW, I changed three diapers, two wet and one of them dirty prior to his nap. Then he had another dirty diaper and I changed it. Matthew brought down clothes because I had never changed Karsen out of his p.j.s. Matthew dressed Karsen. Karsen played around a bit in the family room and his mother came home. It was about 4. They were both very happy to see each other.

Today Ramona is going to be gone all day because she has her teacher-training-class this evening and she decided that it would be easier if she just went there straight from work instead of returning home and then having to leave in 30 minutes to go to class. Matthew is in school today in the morning until about1 and then again in the afternoon until about 9p.m. so it will be just Karsen and I for the entire day. I will be fixing his breakfast, lunch, and dinner and putting him to bed. Matt and Ramona, both, will return home around 9 or 10 or later, I am not sure.

I am thriving with taking care of Karsen. Isnt this somethng? I went to Newburgh and was rejuvinated by taking care of my three Indiana grandsons, and now I am revived by taking care of Karsen. I am really enjoying it and it gives me something to look forward to every day and some goal to accomplish before the day is done.

Next week, Ramona begins her 11p.m. to 7:30 a.m. shift and I will only take care of Karsen in the mornings. Ramona is going to try to get her sleep in the mornings and she will take over Karsen's care when she arises for the day. I will continue to go to Ladies Bible class on Wednesdays, but our proposed routine is for me to take care of Karsen every morning.

Life is good.

May God richly bless you, my loved ones. jk