Ms. Tia

Kelley and I ventured off to Philly this past weekend to tend Tia, Kate and Jeff Buxton's cute little two year old for a few days. We met up Friday evening and went to a really good restaurant, Iron Hill. It was great being able to talk with Jeff and Kate. It had been a while and we had a lot of catch up to do. When we returned to their home, Kate meticulously instructed us on how to care for Tia. She seemed a little hesitant to leave her beloved in the care of someone else though she had complete trust in us. This made me understand the love of a parent as well as made me anxious that everything would go perfectly over the weekend.>>> Jeff and Kate left early Saturday morning for NYC. I had already been up for two hours when I heard them stir. The combination of air sirens alerting volunteer firefighers and traffic outside of their home kept me from sleep. I tossed and turned as the Buxton's left until little Tia woke up. Tia whined for a few minutes and Kelley figured that she should go and get her. We both knew what that would mean. Little Tia realized that it wasn't her mom that was coming in and started calling out to her between sobs. It took her a few minutes and she was alright. She then asked," Where is Wes?" She walked around the corner into the room and crinkled her nose as she smiled. What a cutie! >>> Tia was great throughout the day. At lunch time we decided to walk to the corner deli/market. We started off down the hill and Tia was adamant that she push the stroller. Kelley tried to control it, but it kept veering off the sidewalk. Tia wasn't about to ride in the stroller. We turned the corner and she lost interest in the stroller and became engrossed in the world outside of her own yard. She especially loved the dandelions and blossoming weeds. She would try to replace the dandelion that she had carried with the newly found blossom. After about 45 minutes we made it to the store at the corner and bought a few groceries and headed back. We decided on the way back that we would stop at the playground behind the school. She loved the slides. It took her a few trials before she was brave enough to go on the bigger slide. She would crinkle up her nose and smile with her new teeth. After returning home, we had lunch and put her down for a nap. The rest of the day we hung out in the house and played ball on the floor. Tia would shriek with laughter when I would throw the ball to her. >>> Sunday we got up with little protest and headed off to church. I decided to open the sunroof for the ride to church. Tia was very concerned. She said, "Uh-oh, car broken." We had a good belly laugh. She did great at church. While walking in she kept muttering, "I like church." The high councilman walking behind us was impressed. She was particularly interested in the sacrament, especially the sacrament cups. During the high councilman's talk we were busily reading books aloud. We did our best to wake the comatose old ladies on the bench ahead of us. >>> Sunday afternoon was pretty low key until the late afternoon. Tia and I were outside and she had just finished a yellow popsicle when it was time to go back inside to get cleaned up. She was immediately angry and then lost all control. This was at the same time that Kate called checking up on us. Great. Kate tried to console Tia through the phone, but it made her uncontrollably angry. Kelley picked her up and for ten minutes tried to calm her. Finally, Kelley bribed her with bubbles and she was happy as a clam and had completely forgotten that she was angry. That evening Kelley and I were both exhausted. We were surprised with the energy that it took to tend a two year old. >>> Jeff and Kate had a great weekend and we were glad that we were able to give them a break. Tia was really cute as we were about to leave, she gave us both hugs. On our way home, Kate called and told us that Tia had confessed that she hit Kelley and I. "Tia hit Ew-wy (Kelley), mommy mad?" Too cute. To see pictures from the weekend, click here.