Bailey Their New Kitten

This year Chloe's grandmother got her a new kitten for their house. This past year they had several of their cats die from old age and they decided that it was time for a new kitten.

Mimi found a kitten at the animal shelter in Jackson, TN that they fell in love with and got it for Chloe without her knowledge.

When she came to Memphis for Christmas she told her that she had a "Special Christmas Present" for her and she was so excited to see what it was.

Her first ride in the car home from the Animal Shelter, all wrapped up in her blanket.

On her ride to Memphis in her new car kennel. She looks so comfortable as she rides down the rode to her new home.

Under the Christmas Tree on Christmas Morning waiting for Chloe to find her waiting for her.

Hi Chloe, were going to be the best of friends for a very long time. I can't wait to see what kind of adventures that we will have.

Our First Snow For 2016

Chloe looks forward to the first snowfall each year. She wants an opportunity to get out in the snow to play and make snow angels and make snow people.

She thinks of all the things she can do when this "Special Day," comes along each year.

This year we got our first snow in January which is early for us, so now she is hoping for another one in February or March and maybe it will be much bigger.

She had made several snow angels in the yard but she didn't want to get so wet when she made her snow people so she decided to build them on the deck. She said that here they would last longer here than out in the sun.

She remembered how she had learned to roll the snow into a ball and roll it in the snow to make her snow person.

Her bigger snow person fell over after she had made it so she took it and threw it into the lake and then started over making another snow person.

Finally she had a finished product that she is proud of and then she tries to talk me out onto the deck so she can pound me with the snowballs that she had secretly made to use on me.

How Many Minutes Until Friday?

After having a fun weekend with Chloe, she left on Sunday afternoon to go home. We had had such fun all weekend, playing and doing things that a little eight year old loves to do.

On Monday afternoon, I get a call from Chloe. What are you doing Poppy? “Oh I'm just sitting here waiting on you to give me a call this evening. (Silence) Then I asked her, what are you doing and her reply is, “I don't know!” which then prompts me to start to dig out of her what she has done for the day. Did you have much homework? “Yes, was her reply, and I have already finished it.” Did you get to play outside today? No, but we went to the gym to do some exercises. This dialog goes on for several minutes, me asking the questions and her supplying the answers.

It then gets quite on the line and then she says, Poppy how many minutes is it until next weekend!

Well it is quite a few minutes until next Friday. Poppy, how is that when a minute is so short of a time.

Well there are sixty minutes in and hour and twenty-four hours in a day so that is 1,440 minutes in one day, times four days, that will equal 5,760 minutes. Wow! Poppy that is way to long to have to wait until I see you again.

Well Chloe, it is better if you just think of it in days rather than minutes because four days is shorter than over 5,000 minutes.

Is it ok, if I call you everyday until Friday, sure that will be fine with me because I will get to hear your sweet voice everyday.

So on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I got my “Special Call,” from her and we talked about what she had done at school for the day and what she wanted to do for the weekend. On Thursday she was so excited because she knew that it was only one more day until Friday.

It was also a long week for Poppy but then she would have a long weekend with us and an extra day off from school on Monday for a school holiday.

I can't wait until then to see what she will want to do then.

This Has Been A Great Christmas

But, Poppy I Want The Elsa Doll

It is getting close to Christmas and we are thinking of what to get Chloe for Christmas. She likes so many different things, that it makes the decision that munch harder.

We know that her Mimi and her mother will buy her Barbie Dolls, because this is the type of doll they both grew up with.

We have gotten her into baby dolls at out house and she has grown to love them very much.

All little children are swayed by what they see in Movies that they attend or from shows on the TV.

Chloe and her mother have seen the movie Frozen and she loves Elsa best.

One day a few weeks ago we were at the grocery store and she wanted to stroll through the Christmas area in the store. They had toys of every type that would interest boys and girls but it didn't take long for Chloe to spot an Elsa doll. This doll was a stuffed soft doll in a beautiful dress with hair that was braided out of material and her slippers were sewn on her feet and they looked like silk.

Of course she wanted it upon seeing it and I said that maybe she should wait until Christmas, because it was just a few weeks away.

She talked me into letting her carry it while we shopped. As I was shopping I could hear her talking to the doll and they were quickly becoming best of friends. I knew that I had to remind her that we were not buying her tonight, I was just letting her carry it while we were shopping.

She said that she understood the deal and she had know problem with that, but maybe Santa could bring it to her at our house.

Later she came up with another solution.

Poppy, if I make four 100's on my school papers will you buy me this doll. I was surprised that she had thought this through on her own and I agreed with her on her deal.

We checked out of the store with our purchases and as we were heading home she had started thinking that they only had three dolls like this one left and if I waited too long they would be gone.

I explained to her that we had made a promise to each other and that we would stick to that promise.

On Saturday evening when her mother came to pick her up she told her mother of the promise that she had made with me to get the doll.

On Wednesday of the following week I got a call from Chloe. The first thing that she asked me was did I remember our promise. I said that I did, and she said that the next day they were out of school and could she come over to my house. I said I would be glad to have her. When she got there the next morning the first thing that she showed to me was five school papers each with 100 on them. Poppy, I held up my side of the bargain plus one. I said that we needed to go to the store and get her doll.

When we got to the store she searched all over for the doll and there was not one to be found. So I started to move some other toys around and we found four of the dolls to choose from. She looked all of the dolls over choosing one over the other for anything that didn't pass her inspection finally settling on her doll.

When we got to the checkout she had to tell the cashier how she came to earn the doll and she was so proud of the challenge that she had set to get this doll.

She may be only eight but she has the mind of someone much older.

Little Annie Is Ready To Go Trick A Treating

It was such a big surprise what Chloe was going to be for Halloween. She kept Grand Mother and I in suspense until the day of Halloween of what she was going to dress up as.

Several days ago she had gone shopping with us an purchased a Cleopatra outfit that she wanted to have to play when she comes over to our house.

It didn't take her long to choose the outfit that she wanted and she couldn't wait until she couldn't wait until she got home to try it on.

She looks so precious in her new costume and she really got into the part of Cleopatra.

Well Halloween finally came and then her mother went to work to get her ready to go trick-a-treating.

Her mother dressed as a witch and she was dressed as Annie, complete with the red hair.

They make a precious pair of Trick-A-Treaters don't they, we could hardly recognize here but the smile was still there.

Well neighbors she is all ready to fill her pumpkin with treats to fill her sweet tooth for many days to come.

Halloween Is Just Around The Corner

Halloween is one of our grand daughter's favorite Holiday's. She can't wait until it arrives every year and as soon as it passes, she will start asking how long will it be before it comes again.

She loves to pick out a pumpkin and to decorate for the day and to eat the candy that we get for the trick a treaters.

This year we went to Kroger's to pick out a pumpkin.

She had so many to choose from that it was hard to make up her mind for the one that she wanted and then she saw the mums and the other decorations. It almost became to much to comprehend at one time.

I asked her to turn around while she was trying to make up her mind, so I could get a picture of her in front of all the pumpkins.

She decided that she would wait until she had gone into the store and looked at all if the other Halloween decorations and outfits before she would make up her mind,

Of course they had more pumpkins inside for her to choose from, as well as candied apples.

She wanted me to take pictures of the festive decorations set up in the store to put you in mind that it was now fall and the Holiday's are all just around the corner.

She likes going to this store as it is closer to our house and smaller than the one we usually go to.

She is still small enough that she loves to be pushed in a buggy when she is with us shopping, so Grand Mother had the honor of pushing her through the store.

It didn't take long to reach the Halloween section where she quickly got out of the cart to check out everything in this section.

They had candy of every kind, holiday costumes and all types of decorations for the house and your yard. We (Poppy and Grandmother aren't into the decorating like they do at her house, but that didn't stop her from looking at everything.

I put on a few mask to try and scare her but she said, "I'm not scared because I know it's you (Poppy) under that mask.

Well it was fun trying...,

She found her a purple wig and a hatchet that she liked.

She wanted to demenstrate how it was used years ago...

I said don't swing it around in here because you could knock something off of the shelf, or worse yet, hit someone.

So she continued to shop through everything that they had for sale.

We finally made it out of the Halloween section and when we got to the frozen food section she comes running up to me and told me that she was guarding me to keep me from harm.

She let me know that the enemy was approaching (Grandmother) and she had to protect me. Aren't grand children the greatest.

As we went to check out we had to pass the Halloween section and of course she had to check it out again.

She wanted to not leave the store until she bought something, but again there was so much that she couldn't make up her mind.

Finally after deciding that she would settle for a pack of candy, she was ready to leave for the evening.

I know that days like this are "Special," and it won't be long and she will be grown up. By posting this she will have something to look back on and remember the special days she had growin
g up and spending time with her Poppy and Grandmother.