i love when she slaps her leg

Urban and I visited grandma and grandpa one morning when the sun was shining and my grandpa (Alton, as in, Emerson Alton) sat at the kitchen table doing his taxes.  I mention the sun shining because the sun makes an appearance in most of the memories I have with my grandparents.  This morning was the same; the sun shone through their big living room window and cast a large sun spot on the green carpet.  The same sun spot that rose every Saturday morning to watch cartoons with my Uncle Chris.  I remember Wild E. Coyote with the Road Runner and The Adam's Family, which I thought was so weird.  Uncle Chris would laugh hysterically and we would laugh at him laughing.

Of course Grandma had a gift waiting like always.  Hand sanitizer and yarn for me, a new bib for Urban.  I put it on him right away because the one he was wearing when we arrived was soaked.  Grandma laughed at how much he drools.  It's something she talks about every time she sees him.

To my relief, Urban was very well behaved.  He walked toward grandma very slowing with his arms up ten minutes after we got there.  Grandma slapped her leg with happiness.  She had asked him a few minutes earlier if he would come sit on her lap and he ran away.  I am so glad he changed his mind because, honestly, I would sit on my grandma's lap if I could.  She has this love about her and this way with kids.  I remember when I was a kid and I went with my mom to visit her in the hospital when she had breast cancer.  I was there supporting her, but at the same time just being with her had such a calming effect on me that I didn't want to leave her.  I'm glad Urban experienced it.

My grandpa keeps is pencils for doing cross word puzzles by his chair in the living room in a leather glasses case with fur on the inside.  Urban found that and took a liking to it, carrying it the entire time we were there.  My grandma told him "you can hold that" like she did everything he showed interest in.  It became a game to see what he could find that she would approve of.  The phone, pictures and hershey kisses were all "no-nos."

Whenever my grandpa would stand and take a peek into the living room, Urban would back-up from whereever he was, keeping his eyes on my grandpa the entire time, until he reached me or my grandma.  They both though that was pretty cute.  Urban never cried out of fear, which is different than our other two.  Grandma even noticed.

Before we left, Grandma ran to the closet in the girl's room where we used to sleep as kids and dug  out a box of Tollhouse Club crackers that were left over from the luncheon with the sheep shearers and she raved about how much better they are than Saltines.  "For years," she said, "we were eating Saltines and I don't know why.  These crackers are so much better.  They have so much more flavor.  I got too many boxes and I don't need this one."  I was dying to go to the closet and see if she had any Wheat Chex.  When we weren't eating scrambled eggs and ham with homemade white bread and butter for breakfast as kids, we ate Wheat Chex from the extra boxes stored in the closet.  It is the catch-all closet.  Man, I love that flippin' closet!