surprise!

It's quite easy to surprise someone 

who doesn't have much of a memory to speak of.

Yesterday, as you know,  was my turn with Gramma Joyce.

At various times, I take a single kid with me, so they get to spend alone time with both momma,

and their great-gramma.

Lexi considered yesterday 'her turn', with Lily just coming along

since there was no one to leave her with, with the boys being at camp.

I was really proud of her, because completely  unprompted,

(meaning I totally forgot to have the 'we are here to bless Gramma' conversation)

she opened and closed doors for Gramma

and even insisted on using Gramma's key (still attached to her purse...) to unlock the door when we got back from dinner.

She brought a deck of cards to play Go Fish, and didn't even flinch when Gramma took 3 cards from her, more than once.

(for a 5 year old who has been known to send her cards flying across the room when that happens, accompanied by a screaming fit, 

that's fairly impressive)

She sat by Gramma Joyce at dinner (Golden Corral) but couldn't really find any ways to help her...

Anyways, back to the surprise.

I hadn't called Gramma to say we were coming.

I usually don't - I figure she's not going to go anywhere, so she'll be there,

and she has a list of whose turn it is to visit, so she already knows I'm coming...

Sometimes she doesn't feel well, and thinks she wants to beg off, 

but I tell her I am coming anyways.

I figure if she really doesn't feel up to going out, I'll just visit with her at the house.

She's always been up to going out. :-)

When we knocked on the door, she had just hung up the phone from talking to my mom,

telling her she wasn't sure if anybody was coming or not,

so she was quite surprised when we showed up.

(she called her right back to let her know not to worry - I was there. 

The funny thing is - it was barely 5:00; way earlier than anybody usually arrives to visit or take her out)

So surprised and tickled about our coming,

at random points throughout the evening, she would clap her hands and exclaim,

"This is such a nice surprise! I'm so excited!"

(now you see where I get some of my exuberance from ;-)

I was telling Tyler about her happiness at our visit, and Lexi said dryly,

"Yeah. It got annoying. She said she was 'so excited' about 20 times."

(so, I guess we still have a ways to go yet, on 'blessing our elders'... ;-)

My intention had never been to surprise Gramma,

but it was kinda nice to have her so thrilled with our visit.

I may just surprise her again,

in six weeks.