Tales of the Grandchildren: Satchel’s Fill-In

Instructions for Satchel’s Fill-In, June 4, 2007 – Email correspondence regarding my grandson at age four; Brooke is my daughter-in-law, his mother:

From me: Hi Brooke, I’m leaving today for Carmel, and then Southern California, and returning this weekend, so I won’t be here to keep my usual date with Satchel on Thursday. Here’s the schedule for whoever covers:

1. Pick him up at pre-school. Sign him out, and don’t forget his coat, shoes, socks, pants, shirt, lunchbox and any art he did that day.
2. Ask if he has any good ideas for the afternoon.
3. He likes to go to the ice cream store. He’ll want a rainbow sherbet, but get it in a big cone so it doesn’t make a mess or fall out. Not the huge scoop, he can’t eat it all.
4. His next good idea will be the park. First the swings, and he likes to be pushed high. Whoever is pushing him might whisper a secret to him, like, “You make my heart happy, and that’s just between the two of us.” He’ll whisper back: “Okay, I won’t tell anyone, except Poppy, and Mama, and Busha, and Gumpy, and Ikie, and Bob and Uncle Jon.” He’s not so good with secrets.
5. Satchel likes the slides, and you have to hide and scare him as he comes down. If there’s a lot of electricity in the air, you can shock each other and scream.
6. Then he likes to lie face up in the sand and make sand angels.
7. After the park, he’ll want to go to your house and make rivers in the backyard and read books. He likes the same book read three times.
8. He gets hungry, so it’s good to feed him before returning home by 6. Satchel makes the best eggs (you have to stand close to him when he’s at the stove) and he likes the chicken sausages from Sonoma Market. Sometimes he likes to go for pizza: Mary’s or the Red Grape are his personal favorites. (I like a four-year-old who has a personal favorite in restaurants.) Both have children’s menus with crayons and tic-tac-toe. He plays very well and wins almost every time. If you win, he won’t play anymore and will keep his head down and color in the other games on the menu. He’ll also ask for a Sprite but is only allowed one treat a day (too much sugar for his teeth, you know), and if he’s already had ice cream, he’ll understand that he can’t have the Sprite and will be okay with water.
9. On the way home he’ll want to listen to the CD with all the kids singing. Oh, and he fixes his own seat belt in the car.

That’s the drill. Occasionally we do other things, but this is pretty much how he likes the day to go.

P.S. Sometimes he wants to visit the toy store. He’ll offer to go in and just look around, but I have the great idea that we buy one small thing in the plastic dinosaur or farm animal section. He has lots of toys at home but he says they’re getting rather old, so he could use a new one on occasion.
Love, and I’ll see him next week, Oma

Response from his mother: “When I told Satchel you would be away, he wasn’t very happy. When I promised that I would take him for rainbow sherbet in your stead, he was slightly happier. Then he got pushy and asked for the park and the toy store and pizza. I’m screwed. Travel safe. We’ll talk when you get home. Love, Brooke”

June 4, 2007