Emerson's First Sleep Over With Papa

First things first.  A walk was taken up to feed the neighbors horse and donkey, one of Emerson's favorite things to do with Papa.

When Emerson is in a relaxed situation, being held by someone, he tends to hold on to their face or throat.  He does it completely subconsciously...

There were forts to build and places to hide from Nana.

The two of them played songs and sang together.

The movie was intense, and at the most scary of moments, Emerson held on to Papa for comfort.

Jordan and Lexi FINALLY allowed us to have Emerson over for his first sleep over with Papa.  And it was wonderful.  He and Papa did soooo many things together...inside, outside, inside and outside again.  The taking care of and feeding of the chickens is a 'given' activity that Emerson loves.  He will chase those poor chicken from one end of the yard to the other.  But the best thing, is Emerson likes to take the can of wheat and walk into their chicken run and throw the wheat around for the chickens to eat. They will come running and almost scare Emerson to death...there are 17 of them.

After dinner, there was running and playing all over the place - Emerson's favorite thing is to take the nerf gun and a water gun that we have, and shoot everyone and everything dead.  He makes a certain sound everytime he shoots the gun and we drop to the floor dead, right on cue.  of course, he has to kiss us to bring us 'alive' again, so the repitition of the game is fun for all of us. The two of them played in forts, played and sang at the piano, watched movies, and of course, played horsey...up on top of Papa's shoulders.

Bedtime was priceless.  We gave him a fun bath, washed his hair and got him dressed in his pj's...OH, BTW, Jordan has called at least 4-5 times by now, asking how things are going, making sure Emerson is not driving us crazy...OVER PROTECTIVE and can we say 'way freaked out' over not being with his son for the first time....

So, Del takes Emerson into the guest bedroom where we have two queen beds set up...one for Emerson and one for Papa.  I can hear Papa reading stories to Emerson and then singing Primary and Christmas songs to him.  Emerson decides to join in the singing...which, of course, melts Papa's heart.  But it's only within 10-15 minutes, that Papa emerges from the room with the exclamation, that the bedtime routine, has been a success.

I, of course, have had the following thoughts and feelings sitting out on the couch, listening to all that was transpiring in the other room.  Within days, we will be remembering the 30th anniversary of the day of our Michael's passing.  Yes, it has been 30 years.  And Emerson is just shy of the age Michael was at his passing.  I'm feeling grateful for this heavenly moment Del is having with his grandson...a moment much  like the many moments he had with his Michael during the two years we had him.  The afternoon had been filled with the exact things he used to do with Michael...and he was able to now have them with Emerson.  My heart was full.

There will be many more sleep overs with our grandchildren.  But with this being Emerson's first, it was very special and memorable for us...