…And Bells on Her Toes

I took the girls and my brother to my Parents’ house yesterday for a visit.  It was cloudy and threatened to rain, but it was still a nice day.  My Parents enjoy the kids so much and the girls adore them.  We had a nice, albeit extremely early dinner (my Mom thinks that 3:00 is a perfectly acceptable dinner hour).  After dinner, my brother and I took the girls for a walk on my parents’ property.  They have about three acres near Peterborough and it’s beautiful.  The house is on the top of a hill and the forest is down in the valley.  They have a garden where they grow vegetables for their table and are so delicious.  I’ve noticed that the more aged my parents become, the smaller their vegetable garden becomes.  When they first moved to this house in 1989, my parents were in their mid-sixties.  The plot of land they had for their vegetables alone measured 100′ x 50′ – the vegetable garden was bigger than the entire property they had when they lived in Scarborough!  Sadly I noticed yesterday that the garden has shrunk to about a 20′ square plot.  My Parents are in their mid-eighties now and it’s getting very difficult for them to properly take care of this enormous backyard.

Tractor Girl Lexy

My brother moved out to Durham exactly a year ago yesterday.  He lives a mere 10 minute walk (if I have the kids in tow) away.  It’s been great having him so close by even though I don’t see him as much as I should.  It’s been hard with two kids and an increasingly demanding job just to keep up with stuff at home, never mind visiting others.  Rob’s been out of work since he moved.  He quit his job of 21 years and downsized his house.  For the first six months it wasn’t bad but I think he’s feeling the pinch now.  Since he’s been off, Rob’s been going to our Parents’ house every long weekend and sometimes in between.  He helps my parents deal with the grass, the trees and the garden.  I don’t know what they’d do without him.  As much as I know they love it up there I think they need to move to a smaller place.  They need to find a retirement place that they are better able to handle.

My Mom has Osteoarthritis in her hip and sometimes can’t walk.  She has Diabetes and survived Breast Cancer and Hitler’s Germany.

My Dad has a Retina detatching in one of his eyes and despite many treatments, the doctors don’t think there’s anything further they can do.  Sometime in the not so distant future he’ll be blind in that eye.  He’s been a menace on the road for years and I wish he wouldn’t drive, but because they don’t live in town, they need to drive everywhere.

My Mom has remarked on how their phone is so quiet these days.  Most of their friends have either died or moved away.  I think they are getting lonely.

But oh, they love the kids.  My Dad is so good with Caity.  He has this calmness in his voice that just draws her towards him when she’s scared of everything else.  He is their Poppy.  As good a Father my Dad always has been, he’s a better Grandfather.  He has the patience of Job with Lexy.  She climbs all over him and begs him to go downstairs and play with her.  If only we could bottle their energy.

Anyway, so after dinner last night, Rob and I took the girls for a walk down the hill.  We started to go in the wooded area, but the mosquitoes were dive-bombing us like the buffet just arrived.  We high-tailed it out of the woods and carried on at the bottom of the hills.  I caught three frogs and showed them to the girls.  Lexy screamed and Caity laughed.  Caity lost her shoe about 5 times.  We’d be walking along, my brother and I each holding one of Caity’s hands and Rob would look down and see a bare foot, just walking in the wet grass.  “Um, Mommy?  I think Caity lost her shoe”.  Caity would proclaim “Toe-Toe!” and keep walking.

We didn’t realize it, but Lexy got bit by a few mosquitoes.  She got one on her eyelid and after sleeping on it, she woke up this morning looking as though someone decked her.  Her right eye is swollen shut and pretty red and purple.  She said it doesn’t hurt, which I guess is a good thing.  I gave her some Benedryl and put a cold cloth on it.  It’s opened up somewhat but still looks nasty.  I hope the swelling goes down by the time School starts on Friday.  They take the Kindergarten Kids’ pictures the first day, and right now she looks like a beaten child.

Lexy we’ve discovered is allergic to bug bites.  I’m going to have to get her tested soon.  I hope she’s not allergic to bees or other type of stings which need an epi-pen.  Last year she had a mosiquito bite on her arm and it was so red and swollen I thought she had ring worm.  I think next time I’ll hose her down with Deet first and encase her in a bee-keeper’s outfit.

At least she had fun at Nanny’s and Poppy’s.