It had been three weeks since the big move to the Manson mansion in Amity Park and things were starting to settle down. The four hour flight caused some jetlag in the children and threw off their routines, especially for Sam, who had already been recovering from a long trip overseas and now had to deal with a time change and living in a new house. Harrison wasn't as affected by the time change, but he was noticeably affected by his sister's mood, prone to fussing more at mealtimes and diaper changes if Sam was having a bad day.
Grandma Ida was their main caretaker for those weeks while Jeremy and Pamela were running things around the company as well as assimilating themselves into Amity Park's community of the rich and elite. So it was only Grandma Ida who stood witness to the tantrum Harrison was throwing over his breakfast of dry Cheerios when he realized that his beloved big sister would be leaving him for her first day at Amity Park Preparatory Elementary School. Even though he didn't understand why his big sister was leaving him, Harrison was distraught. His big sister Sam-Sam was the best person in the world and now she was leaving without him and Harrison didn't like this at all. This was the first time that his big sister was going somewhere without him and Harrison was sure that she was going to leave and never come back; just like his first Mommy and Daddy, the ones with the red and black hair.
So Harrison screamed and cried his little heart out as Grandma Ida and Sam tried calming the toddler down enough to get some food in him. Sam looked to be on the brink of tears as well as she watched her brother cry at the fact that she was leaving. When she had left for Opening day last week in her neatly pressed uniform, she was later told that Harrison had a full meltdown even though she was only gone for a few hours. Sam was worried he'd be even worse off since she would be gone even longer with it being the official length of a school day. She hadn't even started off her school career and she already didn't like school, especially if it made her baby brother upset.
"Grandma, do I have to go to school? Harry never cries unless he's sad and I don't wanna leave Harry sad all day." said Sam as she crossed her arms in a pout. She didn't care if her cereal got soggy anyways, her baby brother needed her!
Grandma Ida smiled patiently as she unbuckled the crying toddler from his booster seat and gently bounced him upon her hip. Harrison flailed against her as his wails picked up in volume before he was startled into silence, green eyes wide with shock as Grandma Ida gave him another playful bop on his nose.
"Now, enough of this tantrum young man. You and I will have lots of fun today, we'll make Sammy get jealous." Grandma Ida whispered loud enough for Sam to give an indignant "Hey!" as Harry giggled at his sister's face. Sam pouted again to tease out another bout of giggles from her brother before she began finishing her breakfast at a look from her grandmother. The chauffeur would be ready in five minutes and it would be best for her to leave now while Harrison was still in a good mood.
Carefully hopping onto the stool to boost her to the counter level, Sam quickly rinsed her bowl and placed it in the sink, Sam hopped down, kissed her grandmother and brother goodbye, and grabbed her backpack and headed out the front door.
Now Grandma Ida and Harrison were fully alone for the first time since Harrison had been brought to the family. Harrison looked curiously at this grandma as she guided them towards the kitchen. She gave him eskimo kisses until she had a giggly child in her arms before she set him on the kitchen countertop.
"I have an idea, little one. Since you're missing Sammy, let's make her something delicious for when she comes home. Want to make cookies with Grandma?" she asked as she began pulling out ingredients for chocolate chip and basic sugar cookies. The moment Harrison saw the chocolate chips, he started cheering excitedly in a jumble of words that vaguely sounded like "Chocolate chip cookies!"
"You're going to be my helper?"
"Yes! Help gamma." Harrison cheered.
And that was how they spent their morning, starting with the sugar cookies as Grandma Ida measured the ingredients and let Harrison pour them into the bowl, laughing as she fished chubby fingers out of the mixing bowl whenever he thought she wasn't paying attention and sometimes even when she was.
Grandma Ida loved the look of concentration on the child's face as she showed him how to press shapes into the rolled-out cookie dough, transferring the shapes onto a sheet before popping them in the oven. They finished the chocolate chip cookies in a similar manner as they let the first batch of cookies bake, Harrison laughing in glee at the two chocolate chips he managed to sneak from the bag (Grandma Ida had seen the theft from the corner of her eye and figured spoiling her grandson every now and then would be okay).
Once the sugar cookies had been pulled out to cool and the chocolate cookies had nearly finished baking in the second oven, she took a look at her grandson who had somehow accumulated flour and pats of sticky butter and dough all over his face and arms, and even some drying in his already unruly hair.
"Looks like someone needs to get cleaned, right little one?"
"Gamma no. No bath." Harrison said with a pout towards his grandmother.
"No bath? Well, you do look too yummy to clean, so I guess I have to eat you instead!" said Grandma Ida, playfully grabbing the little boy as she pretended to gobble him up as she tickled him. Shrieks of laughter erupted as Harrison tried squirming away from the elder's fingers.
"Gamma no! No eatin', no eatin'!" Harrison said between bouts of laughter. "I take bath."
"You want to take a bath? But grandma wants to eat you up, nom nom nom." Grandma Ida replied as she pretended to nibble his fingers.
"No no gamma. I take bath okay? I take bath." chirped Harrison as he laughed again, bright green eyes lit with joy and love, all his anxieties about his sister driven away.
"Okay." Grandma Ida said with mock sadness. "Let Grandma take the cookies out and then put you in the tub. What color do you want the bubbles to be?" The older woman asked as she pulled out the last tray to cool on the counter and rang the bell on the counter to summon a maid to clean up the mess they had made. She scooped Harrison from the counter and headed up towards the second-floor bathroom next to the children's room where all of Sam and Harrison's bathroom supplies were.
"The apple one please Gamma." said Harrison as his Grandma placed him on the toilet seat before she bustled about getting the tub ready and pulling a new outfit from the drawer labelled with a white cursive 'H' for the moments when the kids needed a quick change of clothes. Grabbing the potion vial (her modified version of the cleansing potion that she made different scents to the enjoyment of her grandchildren), Grandma Ida held the vial in front of her grandson.
"What color is the apple one Harry?"
"Gween." he responded proudly.
"Gr-een." the older woman pronounced slowly for the toddler.
"Gamma, I said gween. It gween like my eyes." Harrison puffed in a cute pout at his grandmother.
"You're exactly right, little one. You have such beautiful green eyes. You're my little emerald and Sammy is my little amethyst. Now here goes the apple into the bath."
Grandma Ida laughed as she poured a generous amount of potion into the water, watching her grandson's eyes widen in awe as the water began changing colors and giant foaming bubbles appeared out of nowhere. Once the bath was ready, Grandma Ida put the toddler as well as a few bath toys in and let him play for a few minutes before she began washing him, especially to clean the mess of cookie dough and flour out of his hair. It was mostly unnecessary as the foam would magically vanish any dirt or inorganic residue it touched, but it was both soothing and a lovely way of bonding between grandmother and grandson.
After bath time was over, she wrapped the giggly boy in a big, fluffy towel and gently rubbed him dry, laughing again when the damp tufts of Harrison's hair went askew in little corkscrews all over his head. Harrison giggled with her even though he didn't know why she was laughing and the two of them giggled together as she placed him in an adorable dragon onesie she had gotten at Diagon Alley before they left London; the tail would wave when the wearer was happy and the eyes would blink every now and then when the wearer becomes sleepy.
She snagged two cookies from the now clean kitchen on her way to their home theater as grandmother and grandson snuggled together to watch movies. Grandma Ida smiled as Harrison began to doze off by the end of the second movie, sure that both her grandchildren were handling their first day apart just fine.