Grandma Time

As an out of state grandmother I have a tendency to idealize my grandchildren. Whenever I am wishing for a grandbaby's kiss or a grandson's sly smile or a granddaughter's high laugh I remember them as perfect  little people.

I just got back from St. Louis to help Erin tend Chris and Meg's children for a week. So we had six kids under 8 years of age. It makes me wonder how my mother did it with her 7 children in 7 years.

Mom and Dad with their first four: Jeanne and Jayne, Roark not quite 4 yet, and Brett.


Erin had at least one activity planned for every day, sometimes two. Getting every one ready and out the door with sunscreen, snacks, water, bathroom runs, shoes on, combed hair and clean faces was quite the production. It just took once to realize my imagined perfect little angels were real kids! They did the same things that used to annoy me when their parents were little.

Like potty mouth. It never gets old fashioned or out of style for little boys (or big boys for that matter, just ask their grandfather to talk about their lower body's functions.) And children still whine. In gratingly high voices. And tattle on each other. And hate to go to bed. Bedtime lasted three hours one night, I was asleep before the they were one night.

But we had so much fun! We went to the zoo, swimming, a bird sanctuary, a butterfly garden, a merry-go-round, playgrounds, played games, watched lots of Batman cartoons and "My Little Pony" cartoons, (who knew that My Little Ponies were popular again?) played with Legos, Star Wars,  fixed meals in a play kitchen, rode bikes and read lots of books.

Swarming on a giant beetle.

I sent this picture to John, he asked how I got them all to sit still long enough for the picture.
I answered "threats and bribery, but in reality they did it for their grandpa.
 I told them I was sending him a picture, and they all sat down at once!

We were tempted to leave some of them locked in the kid sized cage at the bird sanctuary,
 but we came home with everyone 

And of course there were some tears. Maggie missed her mommy.

Molly acted like one of the big kids.


I think the hardest thing for me was being the care giver and not the nurturing grandma. I instinctively fell into the role of disciplinarian. We grandmas have already done that, now we want to spoil. I think one of the best moments of the week is when I sat down to mend the binding on a quilt that I had made for Lily. Suddenly I had the four oldest surrounding me asking me to teach them how to sew. And as a grandma I had time for that. The children hand stitched a purse, and pillows and blankets for their stuffed animals. They were crudely made, but made by my grand children's hands.  I do think they are almost perfect after all.