Love for Three (or more) Oranges/Piano Teachers

 

Grampa and Nolan decided he was ready to make a Lite-Brite picture.

Grampa did a demonstration of how to put the lights into the paper.

Nolan caught on well.  Gramma was pleased with his pincers grasp.

Then Nolan started to remove the lights Grampa had inserted.

He replaced all of Grampa's with lights he chose.

The finished picture only used orange lights.

 

 

Nolan enjoys the tools and construction vehicles from his older Goedken cousins.

They are always welcome to come over and play with them again.

 

 

Gramma keeps reading my bib.

I think it must be a bible verse.

 

 

 

Nolan loves hanging out with his older cousins.

He watches them closely, so he can do what they do.

But he's going to be sure they don't take their toys home.

 

 

 

Bottoms up, Little Guy.

Nolan passed on his old hat to Seth.

And he really loved that hat.

Next week, he may change his mind.

 

 

 

I've decided Nolan has Gramma's legs and Grampa's shoes.

 

 

Gramma took Nolan to the park.

He caught sight of the sand pit first and was on his way.

He and Gramma spent most of their time digging.

 

 

After lunch Grampa converted Nolan's bed into a youth bed.

He was excited about reaching big boy status.

He was in and out of the bed many times, checking on Grampa,

who naps on the couch in his room (for Nolan's comfort).

When Grampa looked at the sheets he saw what he thought was a stain on them.

Ready to change the sheets, he inspected closer and discovered

 it was the sand Nolan had stashed in the cuffs of his pants.

He must be planning to bring the sandbox back to our house,

two cuffs at a time.

 

 

 

Nolan is, of course, riding the orange swing.

I'm so glad I didn't have to ask a child to change swings for him.

 

 

News from the California Gentlemen

 

 

 

 

Another great teacher is born!

 

I noticed that Nathan sings to help Andrew.

It's wonderful to see how accepting Andrew is of his help.

If only we could all accept help so readily.

You can see how inspired both of them are.

They are my inspiration.

 

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”  

-William Arthur Ward

 

 

 Mousie Gives a Lesson

by Gramma

 

 

Mousie was giving a piano lesson to a little girl.  Mousie likes to help kids play the piano.  Mousie's piano has 88 keys and 220 strings.  The girl has ten fingers to play the piano.  How will Mousie help her?  Mousie is a good piano player.  He can play so fast, you cannot see his fingers go.

 

 

 

Mousie helped her play with two hands.  This made her so happy.  "You must play the piano on the days you eat," he tells her.  She will go home and do what Mousie told her.  Then she will come back and have more fun next week. 

 

 

A lesson is a step to getting better.  It is a step on a path that goes without an end.  You can make the piano sing.  And that is magic.  You can play the piano and sing, too.  You can make your pals happy as you play the piano.  But, best of all, you can be happy you play the piano.



 

Easter

 

April 14th, Chicago gets snow!

What an amazing place to live.

 

 

One Easter, I had to hurry back from Iowa

to play the organ for the 12:00 P.M. Mass in Schaumburg.

In order to accommodate the extra people that come for Easter,

they had a Mass upstairs and  another downstairs at the same time.

I was to play downstairs.

There was a snowstorm and I ran the car into a deep ditch, as I over corrected

for the skid that was taking the car toward the cliff side of the highway.

(This was before children.)

I called the church to let them know we were stuck and worried about being late.

Fortunately, a farmer came down the road with a tractor and pulled us out.

We were back on the road, with very little delay.

I arrived on time.

After Mass, I saw some of the people who had been upstairs.

They told us they had been in church praying for me,

while I was downstairs playing.

God's Easter miracles are answered quickly.

 

 

Gtamma bought Nolan a new hat.

He was still trying to cram his head into the too small one from last year.

 

 



 

Nolan loves to use the squirt bottle outside.

Grampa said he was like a dog marking his territory.

 

 

 Nolan checks on Seth.

Often he comes to tell me, "Spit."

He wants any drool to be wiped from Seth's chin.

 

 

He also likes to squirt inside the house.

The showers, tubs and sinks are fair game.

My maple cabinet doors are not.

 

 

"Here Seth, I'll give you your froggy pacifier.

Open up."

 

He's very caring and helpful with Seth.

 

 

 

Seth tries to engage people.

 

 

He's very good at it, too.

 

 

 

Nolan loved the St. Peter egg hunt.

He lights up whenever there are other children around.

 

 

He especially liked holding hands.

 

 

Grampa assisted in passing a pretzel from stick to stick.

 

 

The Easter Bunny was especially sweet and charming.

Nolan was willing to share his eggs with her.

 

 

He liked when she got down to his size.

When the Easter Bunny was standing, he wasn't quite sure about it.

 

 

Nolan counted his eggs. 

He got five eggs.

He was only interested in orange eggs.

 

 

Nolan got to ride on the Lake Zurich vintage fire engine.

 

 

As long as Grampa went too, he was happy.

 

 

 

News from the California Gentlemen

 

 

 

The boys turned five and celebrated with a surprise trip to Disneyland.

Auntie Becca showed up as an additional surprise.

 

 

Gramma Mousie Visits Mickey

by Gramma

 

 

Gramma Mousie's cousin, Mickey, asked her and Grampa Piggie to come to visit him at Disneyland.  Mickey lives in California with his pals, Donald, Daisy and Minnie.  A man named Walt Disney made Mickey's home.  Walt's dad worked at the Chicago's World Fair.  It may have given Walt the idea for Disneyland.

 

Mickey is 86 years old.  He was first named Mortimer Mouse, but it was changed to Mickey.  Mickey has only three fingers and a thumb.  The artist has to draw Mickey over and over, to make a film.  The artist has to be paid to do make all the drawings.  Having only three fingers has saved millions of dollars.  Mickey only wears red clothes.  He wears red shorts, or a red band jacket or red overalls, like Mousie's.

 

Gramma Mousie and Grampa  Piggie took their favorite two boys, Nathan and Andrew with them to Disneyland.  The teacup ride made Gramma Mousie feel sick, but she still had fun.  They rode all the rides.  They rode fast rides, tall rides and spinning rides.  Roller coasters are the best rides. 

 

 

Disneyland is a fun place.  And it all began with a mouse.



 

 

Double the Boys, Double the Fun

Seth arrives for his 1st Gentlemen's Friday.

(Notice: Outfit #1)

He arrived with his schedule printed out.

I almost collapsed when I read that the morning nap was from 8:45 - 9:00 A.M.

I complained, "That's not a nap.  It's a blink."

I checked the other two naps.

They were also only 15 minutes.

"He must be like his father," I thought.

Then I realized, the 15 minutes was not the length of the nap.

It indicated the window of the start time for naps.

(Notice Outfit #2)

Seth is talking to Gramma.

 (Notice Outfit #3)

Nolan has secreted off with the calculator to the dining room.

He pulled out and got into this chair all by himself.

I don't know if he thinks he's playing a game.

He knows he's making numbers.

 His favorite number is 0.

Grampa thinks he can put Seth to sleep better than Gramma.

He found Gramma sitting next to Seth as he was sleeping.

I needed to watch in case his pacifier fell out.

Grampa has a little work to do with our little league batter.

He doesn't quite understand which end of the bat to hold.

Grampa decided to take Nolan outside for play.

I wish he would have let me change my clothes

and stop for a "potty" break before they went.

He said the look on my face was even funnier when he announced

he and Nolan were going to go take their naps.

He explained he didn't want to change Nolan's routine.



Nolan is giving Mommy a phone call.

He's letting her know the score.

(Seth is on Outfit #3.

and Gramma is on Outfit #4.)

Nolan and Grampa play with the treasure chest of magnets.

They're uncovering their magnetic personalities.

Nolan was hiding in the bathroom. 

He finally came out quickly when I mentioned.

"You better come and see what Grampa is doing."

  

For whatever reason, Nolan likes to balance on his toy frying pan.

He likes that calculator, too.

Seth resembles the old Gerber baby here.

Notice: Outfit #4.

Tied with Gramma.

He DOES take naps, after all.

And he's content, even if Gramma doesn't shove that pacifier back in.

The California Gentlemen

 

One of my protégés performing London Bridge.

Easter's on it's way.

How Mousie Lost His Tail

by Gramma and Nathan Goedken

Mousie met a boy he loved very much.  He slept with the boy every night.  When the boy woke up, the first thing he did was look for Mousie.  Then he tucked Mousie under his arm and got out of bed. 

When the little boy was sad, he used Mousie to wipe his tears.  When the little boy was scared, Mousie showed him how to be brave.  The boy knew that Mousie was not scared of anything.  When the little boy was happy, he liked to spin Mousie by his tail.  Mousie would spin until he was dizzy.  When the little boy went in an airplane, Mousie sat with him. 



The little boy grew and grew.  When he was five, it was time for him to go to school.  He told Mousie he wanted to take him with to school.  Mousie was very old and knew that mice cannot go to school.  It would scare the kids at school.  The other kids did not have a mouse for a pal.  The boy did not want to go to school without his Mousie. 

Mousie wanted to help his boy feel happy to go to school.  He knew what he had to do.  He wanted his boy to know that he loved him.  So he had his tail snipped off, so the boy could put his tail in his pocket. 



When he gave the boy his tail for his pocket, the boy was sad that Mousie lost his tail.  Mousie said, "I will not miss my tail, if you have it.  If you miss me, you can rub my tail.  Even if you are not with me, I will still feel you rub my tail.  I will send love to you and make you smile.  You will have fun and meet new pals.  And when the school day is over, you can come home to play with me.  Then we can play piano for fun.

God saw that Mousie loved the little boy and was happy.  God wanted to give Mousie a gift for being so good.  God put Mousie into a deep sleep.  God made a new tail for Mousie.  The next day, Mousie woke up and saw his new tail.  He was very happy with his new tail.  He jumped out of bed and said, "God, thank you for my new tail.  I know you did this for me.  I can feel how much you love me.  I love my little boy, because you first loved me."



*No Mousies were harmed in the writing of this blog.

Man and PIg vs. Machine

 

Spring must be here.  The snow is gone.

The dove think it's still a bit too cold to stay outside.

 

 

 

If your battery is dead and you can't raise the hood,

you have to sweetly ask your wife if she still can push your car

If you're from Dubuque, you know how to push start a manual transmission

by rolling it down a hill.

Then you have to hope that you'll be able to jump back in the car

before the car gets away from you.

 

But you still can't replace a dead battery, unless you can raise the hood.

You have to be a contortionist to get to the release catch, when the hood is closed.

And then you must clean the catch with Throttle Bottle Cleaner

(left over from repairing Rebecca's Jetta) and WD-40.

Hopefully, with a new battery, you won't have to raise the hood for a long time.

 

 

 

It feels great to master the machine.

 

 

Nolan is up to 12 piece puzzles.

You can watch him consider the picture he remembers,

and put it together faster and faster.

 

 

 

When he finishes, he takes the pieces out and repeats the process.

 

 

Gramma noticed how much Nolan enjoyed the figures from the Nativity set.

A child loves the world in miniature.

So we went to the store and bought a menagerie.

 

 

Nolan spent hours working with his miniature farmyard.

 

 

Gramma Mousie Gives a Push

by Gramma

 

 

Gramma Mousie and Grampa Piggie were having a party.  Their pals were coming soon.  Grampa Piggie had to go to the shop to get food for the party.  But he got into his car and it did not start.  He tried to open the hood.  But it did not pop open. 

 

The battery was dead, and the hood was shut, so he could not fix it.  He called Gramma Mousie and told her to push his car.  "If you push it fast, I will go to the shop and get the food. 

 

Gramma Mousie pushed the car fast and Grampa Piggie's car started.  He went to the shop and got lots of food.

 

Grampa Piggie needed a new battery.  He needed to open his hood to put in a new battery.  He could not have Gramma Mousie push his car all the time.  

 

Grampa Piggie had to lay under the car and try to open the hood.  He got dirty under the car.  But he got the hood open.  The lock on the hood was full of dirt.  He washed the lock on the hood with WD40.  The lock can open now.  He took out his old battery. 



Grampa Piggie went to the battery shop to get a new battery.  He came home and put the new battery in his car.  Now his car can go without Gramma Mousie pushing it.