These Small Hours, These Little Wonders

     It's been five days since my daughter and grandchildren left to return home to Los Angeles.

   I still haven't gotten around to putting away the toys,

...and the never-deflating Dollar Tree balloons we bought for the birthday party last Sunday (see post from 6/20/2016) still float randomly about the house, up and down the stairs and  from room to room.

   Tom says they look like some kind of space alien pods.

     They kind of do.

     Especially when they're moving to and fro, oh so slowly.

     Still I haven't felt like disposing of them yet.

     I did remove the little post-it note squares that I stuck on the piano keys (and on the corresponding little fingers) to teach my granddaughter "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star".

    On the other hand  I expect the work of art below will remain stuck on our refrigerator door indefinitely,

...as a  memento of one fun  morning we spent at Coffee Time (see post from  10/28/2014)  where the girls made a little friend,

...and one of my friends from the  Posse brought stickers and paper and had the children pick out stickers and paste them onto the page and give each sticker character a name which my friend then wrote down.   The children were captivated by the activity.

    As well as by my friend.

    But aside from the couple of standard left-behind items, a sock, a little necklace,
a pink pony tail twisty,  those are the only material reminders I have of my little granddaughters who will have grown so much, as they always do between visits, the next time I see them. 
     But the hours we have with them, too few and far between, are always times of delight and wonder for Tom and I.

 Helping in the garden.

Helping Grandpa peel the corn.

Father's Day breakfast

    We wonder:  Were our children at that age such little bundles of non-stop energy?

Schiller Park in German Village.

   Were they as chatty?  As disarmingly cute?

Lunch at Panera with Uncle Tommy,

...and in German Village with Uncle Tommy.

     Were they as enchanted  by the common  little everyday objects, still so new to them?

    But of course they were.

 As all children are.

                                                      Tommy and Tom