A Necessary Catch-Up Day

Even strong-hearted staycationers need a catch up day. The smelly laundry wasn't getting any fresher; the refrigerator was pretty much down to the remaining stalks of celery and a tub of crême fraiche; and the piles of assorted paper — mail, news, flyers — were sliding.

Bob and Bobs in the Y swimming pool

We had some good news about our grandson Bobs yesterday. Bobs at nearly 18 months isn't doing much talking and not much walking, despite being bright as a button for all other tasks. Fortunately, Megan has an excellent pediatrician who suggested a referral to an ENT specialist and a full-bore hearing test for him. Megan learned that poor Bobs has so much fluid in his middle ears that what he hears is muffled, and that it looks to have been a chronic condition. He hasn't been learning to talk through mimicry, as babies do, because he can't accurately hear the vocalisations he needs to practice. His walking is also affected because balance control is in the ears. Ear tubes will be installed in the next few weeks, and draining the ears should solve both the walking and talking deficits. One of his few words is Grandma which he learned immediately when they arrived in March for a visit. Megan hypothesises that the flight made his ears pop, so for a day or so his hearing was closer to normal, and he heard us tell him we were Grandma and Grandpa and still remembered when we arrived in Hingham in June.

Bibs trying out the dugout canoe at Plimoth Plantation

And our granddaughter Bibs has decided that she is ready for toilet training so that she can truly be a big girl.

So both Bibs and Bobs deserve some gifts  that have long been planned or in the works.  Bob's will be getting a doll quilt for his doll Buddy that is still in the initial planning and sewing stage. I made a little quilt for Bib's Dolly years ago, so I realised I needed to make one for Buddy too. It will be very masculine of course. Megan told me the sweetest story of watching Bobs practice walking by pushing Buddy in the stroller, when he fell tipping Buddy out of the stroller, she watched him get up, right the stroller, pick up Buddy and talk to him before giving him a hug, and putting him back in the stroller to be on his way again. He is the sweetest child.

Dolly in her new high chair for Bibs's 3rd birthday

I felt Bibs's Dolly needed a some new clothes, and do I love sewing doll clothes. One of the big pattern companies has reissued doll clothes patterns from the 1950s, and they are some of the same that my mother made for me. She loved doll clothes too. We now have doll clothes sewn for three generations.

And now maybe I will get a chance to do a bit of reading.