It's a Quiet Week.....

Sparky is anxiously awaiting the arrival of fall....Oh, yeah, wait a minute, we don't really have a fall...but it's nice to pretend. Temps are starting to come down a LITTLE...like high eighties all next week. Whew! Sparky loves to craft fall things, and when football comes on, that makes Sparky think of fall leaves, crisp fall mornings, and time to start knitting scarves and making fall items...Take a ride over to "Millie's Girls" if you'd like to see what Sparky has been crafting to get into the fall spirit.

In the mean time.....it's our weekly jaunt to Anna Maria Island Gulf Gate Tiki Bar and Grill for breakfast, and then a ride over the Anna Maria Island City Pier to see what's happening there....Always something! Today it was a momma manatee and her baby swimming right in front of us under the pier and off into the distance. Momma had a scar, a small one...We think every manatee we've seen has had a scar so far....some really big, some small. Not sure if that's an encounter with a boat or something else that caused it, but always a little sad to see.....

There were lots of Great Blue herons there at the pier today...Several were on top of the building that houses a restaurant and a bar at the end of the pier.

One had himself situated just so....It's cool to see animals and birds in nature that obviously inspire people to design things---like tripod stands for cameras.

And this one was having a bad hair day!

And what else is new?  Eldy has lit a fire in himself to get in shape. He has gone from being an admitted couch potato, snacking and watching TV for hours on end, to a bicycling' road dude, dieting and whipping himself into shape.  He's lost 13 pounds in just a few weeks, and now cycles and average of more than 12 miles a day. He decided to take this cycling so seriously, he bought himself a road bike, and the biking gear to go along with it.

He is bound and determined to get his blood pressure down and his sugar levels through exercising. Neither one of us has to take medication, and we both want to stay that way. Sparky is really proud of him! Sparky, in the meantime, has sloughed off...The heat really got to her this summer, but she's starting to realize she needs to keep some kind of routine going for her.  Playing pickle ball once every couple of weeks is NOT enough to keep the pounds at bay...Time to for HER to get back to some serious exercise...She's just not sure what, yet...Walking isn't something she enjoys very much. Might take a zumba class, who knows? :-) Stay tuned.....

Sparky's Texas Visit

It was fast, WAY too fast....just for the weekend....

Sparky flew in...Sparky flew out, but what a time she had with her little grandson!

He's grown so fast....He's a little over two now and can he talk!

"Grandma? GRANDMA! WHERE ARE YOU?" and he came running down the hall to find her. That made Sparky very happy. She thought it would take him almost the whole two days to warm up to her, but it didn't take long at all. We quickly got into the business of playing...and being silly....

He's a typical boy...all about cars and trucks. He identified each car and truck by make and model AND color as he showed Grandma his collection. "This is Honda Civic.  Daddy's car is silver Honda. John Deere  tractor. Garbage truck. This is green car. Barron's blue car. This car goes fast. This car goes slow."  Then he'd demonstrate how slow or how fast.

He can count to 20 and not miss a number!  One to one correspondence (touching each object and counting them correctly) now that's another story---not quite there yet.

What's amazing to Sparky is how much he loves books and looks at them intently by the hour and pretends to read them....And of course, if they are about trucks, all the better!

Sparky made a little photo story book with photos of Barron on each page and a little caption about him. "Barron likes to go to the park with his mommy."  "Who came to visit Barron? Aunt Kelly." "Barron's favorite meal is Chicken Nuggets from McDonald's." And, "Barron likes to get wet at the water park." The last page had this....A photo of Barron asleep in his car seat and the caption, "Uh-oh! Barron is tired. He fell asleep. He's had a busy day. See you later!" Grandma read it to him ONE time, and just a little while later, he was "reading" his little book and parroting back what it said on each page! We heard a little "Uh-oh! Barron tired." There were 15 pages in the little book! Not only that, but from a very specific photo of JUST his car seat, he said that the car seat was in Daddy's silver car, which was correct! He's got an amazing memory, that little guy!


We had a lot of fun...We went to the playground....

Grandma got to babysit....Grandma got to wrestle....Grandma got tired, and so did Barron!

Sparky had a WONDERFUL visit with her daughter and little grandson....It went by way too fast...

Kerry

Hard to say goodbye to this adorable little guy....

Sparky is saving up for the next trip and hopes to come back soon, she's missing too much! Kerry says that he is now sounding out words! They were at the grocery store, went past the beer aisle and Barron says, "B-b-b-beer. That's Dadda's." Oh, what comes out of the mouths of little babes...... And, he's doing BLENDS! " Bl-bl-bl-black. That's black." Smart kid, that one!

Until next time.....