Fickle, Fickle

One thing, I have to say here -and I don't know if this is due to the autism factors in both my two little grandchildren here or, is this something normal to small children that perhaps -due to my frequent bouts with senilty, I may have forgotten about -but man, these kids can change their minds, moods, manners in the blink of an eye!

Take Maya, for an example. (And brother, this week, there have been several times when I was almost to a point of wishing someone would TAKE her -somewhere, anywhere, away from me for at least 5 minutes -preferably longer though.

But this morning -or rather Thursday morning cause technically it is now Friday morning and she's asleep, thankfully -she has been for almost 3 hours now too.

Mandy had an appointment in Altoona for Kurtis with the allergist and as she was getting ready to leave, I began to brace myself for the mega crying fest sure to erupt before Mandy and Kurt even got out the front door. Maya was seated at the table, eating her breakfast cereal and Mandy bent down to kiss her goodbye. Maya, sweet and loving, returned the kiss -even gave Mandy a big hug and returned to eating her cereal.

And I thought -Wow! How easy that went! She must have adapted now to Mandy's coming and going here, there, everywhere and not feeling that she is being abandoned by those absences.

And I was wrong there! Before Mandy had even pulled out from the parking space in front of the house, Maya was sobbing, in tears, wailing that she wanted to "go a doctor wif Mommie!" It took a few minutes of talking, consoling her and she was back to being sweet, charming and loveable again.

Then a short time later, my son called. Seems he needed either Mandy or I to go to the bank and put some money in his checking account so he could manage to eat, buy his cigarettes, etc., while on his run to Denver this week. Lucky for him, I just got my check last week via automatic deposit so right now, I had enough money there that I could run to the bank, withdraw some cash from my account and put it into his account.

Which takes me here to a somewhat different subject too, but if I don't address it right now, I'll forget about it all together but how ridiculous is it that my son and I both have our checking accounts with the same bank, (both of us are known to the tellers there too, but that isn't really pertinent here) and when I need to make a deposit for him -emergency funding -I have to write a check out for cash, have the cashier give me the hard, cold cash and then, turn around and deposit said cash into his account. I can't take a check up there and deposit the check to his account, even though my name is on his account -because if I were to deposit the check there, it wouid take 3, maybe 4 days, before it would be shown on his account as available funds, but if I write out a check for cash and deposit the cash, it is recorded immediately to his account balance. Why can't I just go in and have them do a transfer of funds from my account to his since they can look at my balance right then and there and ascertain immediately that the money is there, available. Ok, I just don't understand the inner workings of banks, I know -and that is probably for the better for all concerned there too, I suppose.

Well anyway, back to where I left off before this side thought entered the picture. I told my son I would try to run up there to the bank and put a deposit into his account. Luckily, we have his truck here all week -the nifty 1971 Chevy pickup truck he brought back from Nevada -drove it cross-country two weeks ago. This truck, given to him by his dad (I think his dad has begun to have some major mellowing moments -either that or he has gone totally daft and senile because according to my son, he gave him this pickup truck -no strings attached but a short year ago, he had told our son he could have the truck for a mere $3,500! The truck is really pretty neat too -a bright canary yellow, sits low to the ground, very low mileage, and the old man did a bang-up job on restoration of this thing.

So, Sonny Boy gave me a few cues to remember about the truck -first off, it doesn't have power steering so is going to be a little stiff in the handling department, sometimes it may take a tiny bit of time and extra love and effort before it starts and really turns over and also, it is automatic -shift on the floor -but to move the gearshift mechanism from one gear to another, you have to know to lift up on the lever a bit and then it wil slide into gear quite easily.

So I got ready to run to the bank for him - a short run, as the bank is only about 4 miles from the house. Went to leave and then, couldn't find the key to the blasted truck! Ah, I remembered last night the SIL had mentioned about a key hanging on the key holder in the dining room so I figured that must be Sonny boy's truck key. Took it out and tried to put it in the ignition and no dice -no way did that key fit that truck. So I came back in, called Sonny Boy, who then called SIL at work to ask him where the key might be located, then he called me back to tell me where it was and I figured, fine, now I am ready to roll.

About this time, Maya discovered I was going someplace and she realized too that she was goijng to be left behind at home with her big sister -the 16-year-old. Immediately, she started to pout, then whine about wanting to go with me. I tried to explain to her I would be right back and besides, she has to have a booster seat to go in any vehicle and I told her that her car seat wasn't here because it was in Mommie's car and Mommie was away, far from here and I couldn't get the booster seat from her, so Maya would have to stay home.

There's no pulling the wool over this child's eyes though as she just so happened to remember that there is another booster seat, out in the foyer by my bedroom, just sitting there, waiting to be put into use. So, I was busted then and had to agree to take Maya with me.

Got the seat in place, her into it, all buckled up and we were ready to roll.

Now one thing I have to tell you too -this truck is also very loud! Typical isn't that for many vehicles that are primarily driven by men I guess but it has two pipes, one on each side (is that a dual exhaust -darned if I know -but it is loud) and as I pulled away from the house, the truck making all these loud, rumbly noises and Maya looks at me, all smiles and says quite emphatically "WOW. This is a loud truck!"

After which she immediately launched into song -sang several different little songs she knows to me on the way up to the bank -as well as on the way home too.

The entire trip to the bank and back, she was fine -happy, singing away, enjoying the bouncy ride along with the loud exhaust sounds the truck makes too.

That happiness lasted until I parked the truck and shut the ignition off and she immediately began to cry that she needed to go to the doctor too (she knew that Maya had taken Kurt to the doctor) and she even told me she had to go to the doctor today because "my ear hurts!" Hmmm. I told her we weren't going to the doctor today because you have to have an appointment and she has an appointment next week to see the doctor. No dice, she didn't like that line at all as she told me "I get 'pointment today!"

Even though I had picked up some donuts up at the store on our little outing and tried to use them to bribe her to get out of the truck, it took a good bit of arguing with her to get her to get down, out and into the house again.

And she was fine -happy as all get out for maybe 15 minutes until she saw that Kate, her sister, was leaving, going up to her mother's place and immediately, the tears began again and the wailing that she had to go with Kate, just couldn't live unless she did that.

Kate took pity on her and asked me if it was ok if she took her with her to her Mom's for a little bit and I said ok, -"If you think you can put up with her for a bit there, be my guest!"

Abouit a half-hour, maybe 45 minutes later, they returned but it was actually only to bring Maya in and drop her off as Kate was leaving again, going back to her Mom's and once again, we got the tears and weeping and it took a good bit of consoling her before she decided she was ok and could stay here then.

She was busy with some of her stuff for most of the rest of the time till Mandy got back home but when I heard Mandy pull up out front, I realized Maya wasn't here in the living room. I knew she had gone back to the bathroom a few minutes earlier and went to call to her to tell her someone was here, to get her to come out and see that Mommie was back home but as I called to her and began walking towards the bathroom, I hear her call to me "Don't come in here!" and she ran out of the bathroom, meeting me just as I was about to step in there.

Ah Ha! I could see in a quick glance then too why she didn't want me to come in there then -because on the vanity, there sat a container of some kind of conditioner type stuff that Kate uses on her hair and as Maya ran past me, I could tell she had been a busy little beaver, smearing a great big gob of this stuff on the top of her head then too!

This child knows what just about every toiletry product in the bathroom is used for -or at least "where" it is used at any rate! She's also quite knowledgable -in her mind anyway -about how to apply lots of various cosmestics too -from nail polish (which she applies lavishly to her fingernails, toes, legs, arms, dining room table) to liquid makeup, mascara, eye shadow and lipstick. Ok, her lines are not always exactly straight -a tad messy here and there -but by the time she hits 15-16 years old, she's gonna be an expert in makeup application, for sure!

The evening hours here were not very pleasant though as Kurtis decided tonight was his night to do nothing but cry -actually scream would be a more accurate description. Would not eat supper -turned down scalloped potatoes which he normally will eat with very little coaxing, wouldn't even take a bit of bread and butter -another item that he rarely turns down too. He just screamed for what seemed like 2-3 hours. He even fought Mandy about eating his normal nite snack of chocolate pudding (laced with his allergy meds, crushed melatonin too) and it took both Mandy and Bill to hold him down, hold his hands down, and get the pudding into him.

He sobbed while Mandy walked with him, he sobbed while Bill sat and rocked him -he sobbed when he got down and was able to run around and screamed bloody blue murder if you attempted to put him in the playpen. Steady, non-stop! What his problem was, who knows but finally around 10 p.m., he accepted a second bottle and began to quiet down a bit.

And by 10:30 then, he was down for the count, quiet, peace finally returned over the house!

Some days just go like that -non-stop fussing. Thankfully though, it isn't an everyday occurance or I would be deaf -and bald too by now!

Before getting ready for bed tonight though, Maya insisted on sitting by me on the couch as her dad and I were then trying to watch -and hear -a Law and Order rerun -all the while Maya was insisting on "reading" a book and singing constantly then too! Each time we would ask her to be quiet, then tell her to be quiet, our requests were met with a loud "NO! I not be quiet! YOU be quiet!" Ah yes, the joys of a smart-alecky mouth on an almost 5-year-old.

And then, about 9 p.m., she suddenly decided she wanted to get her jammies on and after that, she wanted to lay down in Grammy's room, on Grammy's bed and by 9:30, she was out like a light then.

So now I'm going to go sit in the tub with the water as hot as I can stand it in hopes of maybe soaking a few of the pains in my joints out and relaxing there a bit. Then, a good greasing up of the back, knees, ankles and leg muscles with the Aspercreme stuff I got myself today and off to bed -in hopes that tomorrow will be a warmer day -a dry one too -no more of this grey skies and chilly, damp temps that permeate into every little arthritic spot on my body!

Sounds like a good game plan for me. Time will tell though if Mother Nature is going to be a willig player in this scenario.