A visit with the grand daughters

Actually, this happened a week ago on November 3. My mother advised me to start writing this stuff down because I will forget it later.

It was a slow day and I had conference calls planned at night. My job occasionally works at night because I have to talk to people who have a full time assignment during the day. I also have to consult with people in India. So I decided to take advantage of the slow period and drop by to see Lisa and the girls.

We agreed to go out to lunch at a nearby Thai restaurant. I arrived at Lisa's house around noon. The girls were awake and pretty happy. We visited a few minutes and then packed up to go. I learned how the magical car seats worked. We each carried a little bundle out to Lisa's car and clicked them into place in the rear seats. The main thing I remember was how they squinted when the bright sun was shining in their faces.

When we got to the restaurant, we quickly gave up the idea of eating outside on the patio because of the wind. So Lisa got her choo-choo train stroller and we clicked the girls' car seats into it. This is pretty neat technology. Lisa and I maneuvered the long stroller into the restaurant. It was obviously not arranged to make easy passage for twin strollers. The wait staff was very accomodating. They chose a relatively convenient table for us and moved another table to the side so the stroller could be parked next to our table without interferring with other traffic in the restaurant.

Lisa and I enjoyed the great food and talked. Other restaurant patrons were obviously enamored with Sarah and Jessica. The waitress came over and wanted to get a good look at both of them. She gave the appropriate oohs and ahs and was obviously pleased to see the girls. When I was nearly finished eating, Sarah fussed a little bit, so I took her out of her seat to soothe her. It was pretty neat. The waitress was sure I was finished eating because my hands were full holding Sarah. She scooped up my dishes which had 2 bites of lucious green curry with shrimp left. I quickly told her "Whoa, just because I have a baby in my arms doesn't mean I am finished eating!". She was very embarrassed and quickly put my curry back in place.

After we finished, Lisa and I talked a couple of minutes longer. It was getting on toward their feeding time, so we hussled to get out and home. On our way home, both girls started crying a little bit. I guess it was their "We're hungry!" cry. Lisa drove calmly and responded to the girls in her best loving mommy tone saying "I know". She didn't need to say any other words. Her tone of voice conveyed "I know you both are hungry and we are moving as fast as we can and we'll feed you as soon as we get home in just five more minutes!". This was all punctuated by an unspoken "I love you both so much!".

Back at the house, Lisa proceeded to change Jessica's diaper while I consoled Sarah. I was amazed how much stronger she is. She was a little wiggly bundle that I gladly held close on my chest and said Grand Dad things to her. Next up, I took Jessica, while Lisa changed Sarah. Then Lisa proceed to get them all arranged on her big glider rocker and covered them with this big cover so she could nurse them while I was there. What do you know! No more crying.

After they were both fed, I helped burp them. I don't remember which girl I got but it didn't matter. You would have thought Lisa had given them drugs. They were wiped out and ready for a good nap. Lisa spread out a big blanket in the middle of her king size bed and placed them both on their backs. She then lay down on her side and curled around the girls. It was the sweetest vision of contentment. She said this is how they all three took an afteroon nap together. I gave Lisa a kiss and let myself out the front door.

It was a wonderful day.