The Tracys of Denver: Grandma Patti's Visit

Grandma Patti came in last week for a seven-day visit.
I came down with a severe cough and cold and was hardly functional the entire visit. That was a bummer and on day 6 of my cough/cold, I finally went to see the doctor and she gave me a ton of drugs so I could combat the sickness. It worked miracles in 24 hours. Then Patti left on Friday just as I was recuperating. Go figure.

While

she was here, I spent a lot of time in bed, but the boys loved having her around so they could play with her. On a down note, Jack finds all conversations around poop or bathrooms quite funny and Eban encourages him by repeating the words. So they laugh and laugh about this stuff. I've been trying to encourage them to only talk about this stuff in the bathroom where it's appropriate but I'm not having any luck with this strategy. In fact, they love farts and sounds of farts so much that Jack even starting calling Patii, "Grandma Patti Butthole." That was fabulous (insert sarcasm here).

Eban had one sleepover with Grandma and to say it wasn't restful for Grandma is an understatement. She had to get up and switch sides, she had to take a couple of arm blows to the head to arouse her from her weak slumber, and she had to have a wiggle worm of a heater right next to her. One sleepover was all she could handle. Eban slept soundly and didn't understand why she was so tired in the morning. Copius amounts of coffee were had by Patti!

While

Ryan studied last Sunday, we headed out to a new adventure. I heard of the Wild Animal Sanctuary out near Hudson, Colorado, and thought we could check it out. They rescue large cats or other various aminals from neglect and/or circuses, etc. It's out in the middle of nowhere in the plains of Colorado and you need to take a dirt road to get there. I didn't know how safe it would be but basically you are on a huge platform above all the animals and we went at a prime time - - when all the cats and bears w

ere sleeping. Awesome. At least it was great to see the good work they were doing and how they were providing a decent home for these animals who had been through some horrible situations.

Jack can't get enough of playing baseball. He doesn't want to use the tee anymore and he wants to hit it like a big kid. AND he does. It's unbelievable what he's capacble of. Check out the video below.

And Jack has also learned his numbers and letters. He has far surpassed Eban with the retention of letters and numbers and this causes Eban to get really frustrated as Jack easily recognizes letters and numbers while it takes Eban a little more time to articulate it/or know it. I'm cautious with this as Eban has gotten very sad because he thinks he's more "stupid" than Jack. I try to tell him that we all learn at different paces and that he's very smart. But it's still hard on him to see Jack look at the keyboard and easily pick out numbers/letters.

While Patti

was here she was able to see Ryan sing at Earthfest in Boulder. The rules were laid out before we left - no crashing the stage and no crying. The boys even told Grandma the rules so that she would be sure to know that she couldn't crash the stage or cry. Well, it was a hippie extravaganza!! Driving into Boulder, there was a place flying overhead trailing a sign that said, "Light It Up!" Patti couldn't believe that they would so blatantly advertise marijuana. I laughed and said it was Colorado and Boulder...

The show was great. Liza and Ryan did a great job and all the kids at the show loved it. Jack stood at the edge of the stage and just looked up at Ryan smiling in adoration most of the time. Eban ran around. He hammed it up for a photographer and I love how I caught him in the act. Kalea, Liza's little girl, crashed the stage and I thought it was great as my kids weren't the only ones to do that. Kalea even one-upped the boys by putting her hands over her ears as the music was too loud. It was so funny to see how expressive she was!