We had Thanksgiving dinner at noon today with The Husband's extended family - his paternal grandmother's people. Since the "old ones" died, the younger generation (now mostly in their 80s) seldom sees one another, but Cousin Gus throws a big stomp for this family twice a year - Thanksgiving and 4th of July. It's always so good to get together. Gus fried two turkeys and baked one. His wife makes the BEST cornbread dressing. Everyone brought a dish or two. Mine were scalloped potatoes and a pecan cobbler.
Mid-afternoon, we noticed that Son #2 and his family were across the road, working on the house, so we walked over to see if we could help. #2 and Granddaughter #1 were in the process of tearing out of sub-flooring in this old house. The Husband jumped in to help. With the sub-flooring torn out, the house was cold. My contribution to the renovation effort was to bring the LRB to my house.
Earlier in the week, I'd found a 24-piece jigsaw puzzle that I'd worked with the older granddaughters and thought to keep it out for the LRB, who will be 4 in a couple of months. I showed it to her as soon as we got here, and she was gung-ho to try it. We worked it three times before she got bored and noticed these guys atop a cabinet:
They have been around this house far longer than the LRB has been in the world. She'd been asking about them for a year or so, but I'd always diverted her attention. Yesterday, she insisted on knowing what they were. When I told her what they do, she insisted on a demonstration. I got the red one down, filled a cup of water, soaked the bird's head, and set him by the cup to do his thing. We waited and waited, and finally he began to tilt toward the cup, but he stopped before he got there. We waited some more. He would not do it. About 10 minutes had gone by when Granddaughter #1 came in and reminded me that one of the two birds hadn't worked right when she was a kid. So I got down the green one, soaked his head in the cup, and set him down by it. We all three watched with bated breath as the green liquid started to ease up the tube (the red one had done that, too), and when it reached the top and the bird flopped downward, the LRB let out a delighted scream (as only little girls can do!) that nearly busted all our eardrums. We watched him do it a couple more times before the girls had to go.
They'll be working on the house again today, and it's COLD, so I'll go get her if they don't drop her off. One guess what we'll do when she gets here.
I should go figure out why the red bird won't work.
La
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