The front door opened as I parked in front of the house.  I could see two little boys running around the living room, ready to spend the day with me.  I walked in to hugs from both of them with one of them proclaiming that I was the “coolest grandma” because of the yellow bug I drive.  Do you want to see my coin collection?  Did you see my unicorn egg?  (I’m not kidding).  Coupon in hand for a treat at the bookstore, inhaler in the pocket and quick hugs to mom and we were off, the oldest getting shotgun and the younger choosing the best of the back seat.  The goal was breakfast, with an understanding that we were going to a particular restaurant.  And this is where the adventure really began.

“But I don’t LIKE that restaurant, the younger one said, to which his older brother asked, “well, what about that other breakfast place?”.  It’s closed.  “And what about that OTHER one?”  It’s too far away.  “OK”, the younger says, but then as we pull up in the parking lot he says again, “but I don’t LIKE this place”.  Oh, you’ll find something you like, I say with fullest confidence.  Then the kicking starts.  “Grandma, he’s kicking me under the table!”  “No I’m not!”.  “Yes he is!  He’s putting his foot on my leg!”  I find myself kicking into mom mode and then try to distract them with something else.

Sterling orders a double bacon cheeseburger with onion rings and fries with apple juice at 8:30 in the morning.  The one who wanted to go out to breakfast.  Payton, on the other hand, the one who didn’t want to eat at this restaurant orders the ultimate breakfast, three types of meat, eggs, hash browns and pancakes.  That’s a LOT of food I say and he says “I’ll eat it, grandma!” so I say fine, as any grandparent would do.

Plate upon plate of food shows up and after a bite of sausage, a bit of the yellow of the egg and bite in the middle of one pancake, he announces he doesn’t like it and says he TOLD me he didn’t like this place.  Which is true, he did, but I assumed, egotistically, that I was in control. HA!  Not so much.  Three boxes later the food all came home.

Next it was off to the book store, where the boys looked at books for a few minutes before heading to the Pokemon cards.  “How much can we spend, grandma?” is the question and then they try to talk me into the most expensive thing first before negotiating down.  This one I won.

I had a zoom meeting and left them in the capable hands of their Uncle David who took them shopping some more.  They ended up back at the book store where they attempted to get their uncle to buy more Pokemon cards.  He said he would buy one pack each, to which they replied “but grandma bought us three!!”.  He compromised with two.  Then back to the apartment where they quietly ran behind me during my zoom meeting and turned on the Cartoon Network.

NOW, Payton is hungry.  “Grandma, can we go to Sultan’s Kite?  I want a gyro with lots, and lots, and lots and lots of potatoes.  I mean LOTS.  Can I have LOTS of potatoes?  I promise I’ll eat them all.  Really.  I promise!” Well, of course – he’s my grandson!  Sterling was still full of breakfast double bacon cheeseburger and fries, so he opted not to eat again. One drive-thru trip later Payton was sitting at the table, leaning the chair back to watch cartoons while he stuffed his face with Greek potatoes.  Life doesn’t get any better than that, right?  He ate as much as he could before he climbed into grandpa’s recliner with a pillow and throw to snuggle while he watched Sponge Bob.

What to do now?  Who wants to play miniature golf?  “I do!” says the grandson full of potatoes.  The other one, not so much.  He’ll hang out with Uncle David and watch T.V. So again, I’m the cool grandma with the cool grandpa and we’re off to play miniature golf.  “How far is it?  Why is everyone looking at us?  I’ve been there before.  Did you know if you get the last hole you get a free game?”  We park and before we can even get out of the car, he’s almost to the window to pay and yells back at us “you’re so slow!”.  He asks for a green ball and grandpa accidentally gets him red instead.  No need to worry – second hole he chipped the ball and it ended up in the pond.  Grandpa saved the day by going to get another ball and this time it was green.

I should mention that this entire time, despite the fact that there were few people there and everyone was socially distanced, Payton wore his mask the entire time.  So by Hole 15, he was hot, sweaty and grumpy.  And he was dancing. I told him where to go, he handed me his stuff and ran.  A reminder that back in the day, I would have asked my boys if they had to go before we started.  I forgot.  Oh well.

We finished, headed back to the car with his refreshing drink and he got quiet.  “Can we go straight home now?”  Are you missing mom?  “Yes.  I want to go home.”  After we stopped by to pick up brother we dropped him at home where he proceeded to tell mom and dad all about his day.  Seems like grandma was still pretty cool.  Oh, and all that breakfast food?  Uncle Dave ate it for dinner tonight.

“Can we spend the night with you this weekend?”.  Well, we’ll have to ask mom and dad.  Regardless, it looks like grandma made it through the day and is apparently still cool.