KT Baby - Gordy Kaiea Sells: October 2017

Gordy made 16 months old... or as he would say - "I'm 1".

This last month has been challenging for all three of us. Gordy has become more opinionated and frustrated that we don't understand him immediately, and we are really not fond of his whinny outbursts. So, we spent some serious time doing the only thing that we could think of - trying to teach him an alternative to the whining. He forgets now and then, but generally he has learned that if he wants something, he needs to say "mama", sign "please" and then point to what he wants. Although it means we have to be quick to react to his requests, we feel like it's a much better situation than the whining.

On a more positive note: Gogo has tons of new teeth coming through. There are so many new ones, that I've stopped counting them. He kisses with an open mouth and is happy to give a wet one to anyone who asks. He has discovered worms.

Todd taught him how to head-butt.

He can say "bye-bye". He loves his ukulele and can strum it (sort of).

His favorite thing lately has been drinking coconut water from a freshly hacked coconut, and he's started climbing all over EVERYTHING. Looking forward to all that the next month will bring.

Gordy doesn't know it, but today is a sad day... today his great-great-grandma passed away. He was able to meet her last month during our trip to Oregon, but, he will never really know what a wonderful person she was. So, this posting is for Gordy:

Gogo, I want you to know as much about your great-great-granny as possible. I've compiled a list of everything that I remember about her and have had your Nana and Tutu add their memories as well. I hope she finds a place in your heart - she will definitely live on in mine.

Her name was Rose Marie Bentley. But, we all called her Granny Goodwitch. This nickname started because your Nana used to watch a cartoon where the "good witch" looked a lot like grandma. So, Nana started calling her Granny Goodwitch and the name just stuck.
She was born on August 19, 1918 in Waldport, Oregon.
She was 99 when she died.
She had five kids - Patty, Ginger (your Tutu), Dick, Louise, and Tommy.
She and Grandpa Bentley owned the feed store in Molalla. The front of the store had all of the animal feed, baby chicks, and farm supplies. The back area of the store had bales of hay and a fishery. When we'd visit, we'd get to hold the baby chicks if they had any.
She and Grandpa Bentley were quite the travelers, visiting places like Egypt, Sri Lanka, Australia, etc.
She collected turtles. Every nook and cranny of her house had a turtle (stuffed, glass, porcelain, wood) that either she bought while traveling, or that someone had given her.
She also collected fans. She had a fan from almost every place that she traveled to and she displayed them all over her bedroom walls.
She loved flowers - particularly roses. She had a garden outside her house that she tended to days up until she had to be moved to her nursing home at the age of 92.
Every time we visited, she always seemed to have a partially finished puzzle on a foldout table. We'd do our best to fill in a few pieces while we were there.
Some of her favorite foods were grilled cheese sandwiches, hot dogs, and sweets.
She had multiple cookie jars in her kitchen that were almost always storing sweets. And, when our parents weren't looking she'd let us sneak into the jars to take a treat.
At Christmas time, everyone would go to Granny Goodwitch's house to decorate her tree and house for her. While the grown-ups did all the hard work, the kids sat around her dining room table making sugar cookies in the shapes of snowmen, trees, and other Christmas shapes. After the cookies were finished baking, Grandma would let us paint them with different colored frostings, and decorate them with sprinkles, and edible beads.
One time when we were at her house, your Aunt Kera and I were looking at the "funny papers" or comics in the newspaper on her table. She noticed, and from that moment on, she saved all of the funny papers from every newspaper for us. Each time we'd see her, she'd have a new stack for us to go through. Honestly, I don't remember really loving the funny papers... I think we may have just been bored at her house, and used them as something to do that day.

Some of Nana's memories:

When Nana and her brother (my Uncle Ricky) would stay the night at her house, she'd always make the kids hot chocolate with real milk and toast with real butter (or margarine if Grandpa wasn't there). Her intention was to have the kids dip the toast in the hot chocolate (as she was so fond of doing), but the kids thought it made the toast soggy. Nana remembers the milk and toast always being burnt :)
Although I remember Granny Goodwitch and Grandpa Bentley as being travelers, Nana says that they never traveled out of Molalla for most of their lives. Apparently, Grandpa Bentley came home one day with tickets to "the Australian Outback". The trip shocked the whole family, but they came home with a travel bug.
When we'd go decorate Granny's house at Christmas time, we'd all bring with us old toys and clothes that we didn't want anymore. Santa would come to the house and after all the kids sat on his lap and told him what we wanted for Christmas, we'd load all of our donated items into his car and he'd take them to the nearby women's shelter. Granny Goodwitch was the one who set it all up.
She only liked McDonalds hamburgers (plain) because the buns didn't have sesame seeds on them. If anyone took her anywhere else, she'd sit and pick all the sesame seeds off the bun.
She raised and sold fish out of a fishery in the back of the feed store.
She dug fish ponds around the house all by herself. Every year the fish ponds would freeze over, but somehow the fish survived.
At Christmas time, when everyone was making cookies, Granny Goodwitch would make frosting roses on the kids' hands and then the kids got to lick them off.
Nana had a doll that she loved. When the doll's arm was up, the doll was smiling and when the arm was down, it was crying. Nana took that doll everywhere with her, so the hair eventually got all ratted. When one of Granny's lambs died, she skinned and tanned the hide, died the lamb's hair black, and glued the hair on the doll for Nana. The new hair was SO soft!
She had so many grand kids... she always got all of her grandkids names mixed up.
She taught your Nana how to crochet - your Nana then taught me.
The whole family would always spend Christmas Eve at Granny's house, and Granny would always make a birthday cake for Jesus.
When she and grandpa remodeled the house, she made the contractor lower all the cabinets and shelves in the kitchen so that she could reach them because she was short.
She hated gas appliances because she thought that they were a fire hazard. In fact, she hated them so much that she boycotted her church for a while after they decided to install a gas stove in the kitchen.
One Mother's Day weekend, Granny Goodwitch, Tutu, Nana, Aunt Kera, and I all went to Sun River. The house that we happened to be staying in had a gas fire-place that we all wanted to enjoy. So, Nana and Tutu decided to try to light the fireplace without Granny knowing so that she wouldn't freak out about it being gas. Granny was sitting in a chair in the living room crocheting while Tutu and Nana turned on the gas and got the matches ready. Apparently, the gas was on for too long before the match was lit, because there was a small explosion and Tutu's eyebrows, eyelashes, and facial hair were all singed. They quickly ran into the bathroom to hide their laughing hoping that Granny Goodwitch hadn't noticed the event which might lead to all of us packing up and going to a hotel. But Granny Goodwitch yelled out, "I saw that!", which made them laugh even more.
When Granny Goodwitch became too old to drive safely, Tutu and the other kids took her keys away. To protest, Granny Goodwitch went out to the main road and hitch-hiked. Someone who knew her picked her up and took her to the feedstore.
She always wore red lipstick. She had a special brand that she liked because it stayed red - she thought all of the other brands turned orange.