Wednesday

Tuesday night Cynthia had sandwich fixings for us, so we ate supper and visited a while.  Then, in an attempt to settle into the new time zone, we went to bed.  I slept with es in the brown room.  Since I wasn't sure how safe she was in the big bed I placed pillows along the edge on her side, which crowded us together a bit but we both slept well.  Cynthia had borrowed a Pack and Play for the baby; he and E were in the blue room.

Wednesday morning I woke up before anyone else, went downstairs and ate breakfast.  Eventually everyone was up, dressed, fed, and ready to be buckled in for the 90-minute drive to Dad's.  Cynthia and Bob lent us their CRV, which carried all of us and our accoutrements easily.  We arrived in time for lunch, a beef and vegetable soup followed by strawberries, white cake and ice cream.  After cleaning up the kitchen Claudia took es outside to help her in the garden.  She had little work gloves for es and a hat.  Then they watered little plants on the sun porch using an automotive radiator filler device; es really enjoyed pushing the button to release the water.  The two of them also used a long pole to take down bird feeders from the trees and fill them with fresh seed.  Claudia brought out puzzles, books and toys for es to use, a big hit.  We had chicken for supper, followed by carrot cake, though es asked for more ice cream and strawberries after eating a little cake.

Dad went to bed pretty early, and the rest of us followed by 8:30 or so.  E and ec were in the guest room, es and I took the sofabed in the living room.  Claudia had told me a thunderstorm was expected about 9, so I tried to explain to es what that meant.  She just cuddled up to me, put my arm over her, and said, "Grandma protect me."  I moved my arm down, thinking its weight would be easier on her hip, but she moved it back.  She slept through the storm.  I had a lot of trouble sleeping.  I got up once and read awhile.  I got up later and wrote a blog post.  I may have slept then, a couple of hours, before waking up in daylight about 6 or 6:30.  So I got some breakfast, trying to be quiet to let es sleep more.  She sleeps like a rock!