The Nonie

My mom is a very private person. She is outgoing and seemingly gregarious on the outside but on the inside she is shy and wanting to snuggle down in her bed with a good book and hot cup of decaf. I don't post about her here because she is so private and doesn't like the attention (or pictures of herself) but today I wanted to throw a quick thank you and "We love you" out to my mom; The Nonie. My kids don't call her grandma because that would be too simple and simple isn't complicated enough for this family and all its lovely family tree limbs. Nonie is a family name we chose based on the insanity that comes with the panic of the first grandchild and the fact that he was going to get to know exactly three grandmas (not to mention lots of grandpas, uncles and aunts too.) So we named her Nonie and that's what we call here around here. Well, that's what Grayson calls her and Abby just smiles and wrinkles her nose a lot.

After Thanksgiving, The Nonie came to stay with me, Grayson, Abby, and Sadie while my husband carried on his family's tradition of deer hunting at the cabin they've gone to over the years.

We had such a great time hanging out and coursing through the days together. She was a trooper with a capital T. She did so many dishes we ran out of (Costco sized) dish soap within a week. Our vacuum was broken so she vacuumed our entire house with a Dust Buster. Not an easy feat at 5 foot 10. She even cleaned the kitchen up (Abby's Picasso food smears underneath her highchair especially) while I bathed the kids or got them ready for bed. I would come back downstairs to a tidy living room, sparkling sink and a running dishwasher. Music to any mom's ears and enough domestic eye candy to make any tired parent weep. She was a huge help. And funny. Man, my mom is one funny bird. She cracks me up on the phone daily but what I'm missing is her physical humor. She is Lucille Ball with her self deprecations and subtle eyebrow lifts that tell me I'm OCD'ing again and maybe Grayson won't die if he watches 60 minutes of a Disney movie at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. He didn't die. In fact, he sat for the entire movie and walked away when it was over. He walked away willingly without me threatening to throw the television into a landfill. There wasn't one histrionic, one tantrum, one tear. He even joined us for dinner. As in sat down in his chair and waited for food. Food that he normally would catapult across the table or "hide" in Sadie's mouth. But for Nonie, he sits and eats like a big boy.

So needless to say when it was time to take Nonie home on Tuesday we were all a little bummed. She has her own family to care for and I'm sure they were ready to have her back at the helm. There are a lot of mouths to feed and plenty of (canine) Picasso food smears to speak of in her own home so it was time to let her go tend to her tribe. We'll let her go for now and hope she can come back again for another stay with us here....where the walls may cave in but the fun never ends.