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Hunter

I brought my MacBook with me so I could participate in NaBloPoMo if I decided I was up to it, but the hotel wireless isn't working. Rather than taking that as a sign that I should give up on the notion that I am capable of blogging every day for a month right now, I'm posting from my iPhone. That means no photos, and probably a shorter post than otherwise would have been.

We're in a hotel because I decided last week that this might be the right weekend to finally visit my grandmother. She has seen many photos of Al and the Beaner, but she'd never met them. (I think the last time I came up to visit I had just gotten pregnant.)

Of course, as soon as I got on the phone with my grandmother to tell her we'd be coming up on Friday night, I realized Friday was Halloween, and we could do no such thing. Rather than disappoint her yet again—there are no other free weekends until late March—we formulated plan B: Finish trick-or-treating by 8, get the Beaner ready for bed, throw him in the car, drive halfway to grandma's, and spend the night in a hotel.

[This is where the cute Halloween photo would be if I could copy & paste on an iPhone.]

The second part of Plan B involved driving the rest of the way to my grandmother's house this morning. The Beaner was excited to leave the hotel in NJ and get to grandma's, though he also expressed some apprehension (both "I'm a little afraid" and "I'm a little shy") because he didn't know my grandma.

He ended up enjoying himself quite a bit. He read the Little Golden Books grandma read to me as a kid, he and Al made a snowman in the yard (it melted rapidly once the sun came out, making it look more like a ghost than a snowman by the time we left for dinner), ate grandma's homemade cookies, drew pictures, played Blues Clues with me, diirected grandma what color scrubbers to make for us, and tried to rearrange her furniture.

We had dinner at our hotel's restaurant with grandma, and then I drove her home. We weren't planning to go back over before heading home tomorrow—I was hoping to take an hour in the morning to show Al around Hunter and take a few photographs—but I may rethink that now that I've realized that I forgot to take a photo of grandma and the Beaner together.

Whether I get that snap or not, I have no doubt that coming up was the right thing to do. Although the Beaner calls refers to her as "Mommy's grandma" as if she's no relation to him, I think he'll remember the visit. I know she will.