31 For 21: Day 22...This one's for you, Bonnie!

Bonnie!

In case you were counting...I missed a number.  That would be Day 21...yesterday.  I fell asleep on the couch watching CSI and The Mentalist.  I have been exhausted due to staying up late at night with the television and then being woken up early by my almost 4 year old alarm clock...yes that would be Andrew!  So tomorrow, I will post twice to make up for it and fulfill my promise of 31 posts this month!  Onward...

My mom and I have a small staff that works for us, mostly in the summer, but now that we have farmers' markets all winter, some staff stays on for the year.  Everyone loves to see the kids when they are there and they have all grown attached to Andrew and Hailey.  Since Hailey is the more outgoing of the two, although that isn't really saying much since Andrew is SO shy, she was eager to learn everyone's names this summer.  Everyday, Hailey would run to the kitchen door to see who had arrived.  "Pam!"  "Hollis!"  "Bonnie!"  And her favorite, "Emma!" who was her babysitter a few mornings a week.  Hailey learned their names quickly and called to them whenever she saw them.  Andrew, however, would run to the kitchen and then flew back to the living room as soon as he saw anyone.  They would follow him and attempt to get a hug, a "hi" or a high five.  Nine times out of ten they left disappointed.  It took most of the summer for Hollis to get Andrew to say her name.  High fives came easier though and I think Andrew misses her now that she's back at college.

This fall, my mom and I realized that we needed more help.  The markets were still busy and we couldn't keep up with all the pot pies and dessert pies we needed to make each week.  We called Bonnie, who sometimes worked for us, but mostly for prep work and service for large catering jobs.  She agreed to help us out one day a week, on Tuesdays when my mom was babysitting the kids.  Andrew seemed to like Bonnie.  He wouldn't duck and run away as quickly when she was there.  She would also do endless "potatoes" with him.  Potatoes is something my mom made up...it's just like a fist bump...two people tapping this fists against each other while saying, "POTATOES!"  Andrew loved to do that with us, but not so much with other people.  But Bonnie could always get Potatoes from Andrew.  He also learned to say her name pretty quickly, in fact, "Bonnie" was the first of our employee's names that we ever heard him say.  I don't even think it's been a month that he learned it, but he says it very enthusiastically, even when she is not working.  "Bonnie, Bonnie, Bonnie!"  He says it over and over.  If you're not listening carefully, you may even think he's saying, "bunny."

Whenever Bonnie sees Andrew, she always asks him what he did at school that day.  He answer is always the same, no matter who asks him..."Paint!"  He LOVES to paint.  At his private nursery school, they always have the easel with the painting supplies setup and he brings home at least 2 masterpieces everyday.  Not knowing what to do with all of them, I have been stacking them up once they are dry and I am going to wrap Christmas presents with them.  I'm "going green" and recycling the paper and then everyone will get special wrapping paper this year.  Last week, Bonnie asked Andrew for one of his paintings.  See, they had a conversation about Andrew being famous one day.  Bonnie asked him what he was going to do when he grew up, and of course, he said "Paint!"  So, we promised that she could have his next masterpiece so she could have one of his early works.  Watch out world!  Those Christmas wrappings will be worth a bundle of money someday...don't throw them away!

So, Bonnie!  This one's for you...he painted it on Thursday just for you.  He told me so.  I asked him what we were going to do with this painting, and he said, "Bonnie!"  Love that boy...he always keeps his promises!

Bonnie's Masterpiece

by Andrew Yahara