Spring Has Sprung
My favorite time of the year has finally arrived, and I’m already thinking of new crafts and activities to do with my grandchildren. When I took Kismet out for her first walk of the day this morning, it was barely 6:00 a.m. and barely light, but the frogs in the creek below my condo were in full voice. How I love to hear them sing!
Last week I had the two-and-a-half-year-old and her big sister, seven-and-a-half, for a full day, which was delightful. Watching the two of them make a fort for their stuffies in my living room and negotiating who sat where and whose scarf got to cover the chairs they had pushed together was great fun. Of course, the harmony only lasted a little while and I started hearing sounds of trouble in expressions such as “That’s not fair” and “Give it to me – it’s mine.” Quickly I redirected them both to the patio where I had laid out eggs and dye.
Egg Dye and Paint
After they finished the eggs I brought out a birdhouse and a handled box that they had painted a year ago and suggested the girls give them a refresh. After the girls ensured that the table, the chairs and the patio floor were all covered in paint along with the two items they were decorating, I declared it time to wash up and take a walk.
The great thing about being a grandma is that I only had to choreograph that one day, and then the girls went home to their parents. After they left, I cleaned up the egg dying project and the paint where it didn’t belong and returned my chairs to the dining room table.
The other thing about being a grandma is that since I only see them once a week or so, I notice the developmental changes in each child more than I did with my own children. A few weeks ago I was visiting my friends and family in Santa Cruz, and I took my 13-year-old granddaughter to an Egyptian museum in San Jose. As my long-term readers will remember, I took care of Bean several days a week when she was an infant, toddler, preschooler, and young elementary school student. I’ve been away for three years now, and the change in this child – now a young woman – is remarkable. Instead of me holding her hand as we crossed the street, she tucked my arm in hers and walked boldly into the crosswalk. She said please and thank you and carried on a lively conversation as we walked and ate our lunch, She read the captions in the museum and encouraged me to take the tour down into the reconstructed tombs. She was engaged and interested – and fun to be with.
Join the Conversation
I’ll bet some of you have similar stories about your own grandchildren, or nieces and nephews. What do you notice when you get to spend time with them? Let us know in the comment section. I look forward to reading your stories.
Marlene Anne Bumgarner writes primarily about food, family, and traditions. Her 2020 memoir, Back to the Land in Silicon Valley, is about raising children, animals, and vegetables on a rural plot of land in the 1970s.
Organic Cooking for (not-so-organic) Families will be out soon. Marlene is currently writing a cozy mystery.
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I love hearing about your adventures with your grandchildren, Marlene. I feel similarly about my almost-five-year-old’s big leaps in development when I scroll through my camera roll and see pictures and videos from, say, last spring. It’s astounding. Bittersweet. So fun.
Helen,
I can’t believe it’s been five years! I love to scroll through my camera roll also; it’s amazing how they change.
I love reading your stories about your grandchildren. Sadly our son married a very selfish mentally disturbed women. We aren’t allowed to see or even talk to our grandchildren, she won’t even let us or our son know where they live. There is more to our story but as I mentioned I love your stories. Thank you.
So sad for you, Janet. Hopefully as your grandchildren get older you will find a way to build a connection directly with them – surely your son won’t hold out forever.
Hi Marlene, Always nice to read your stories. How nice to get together with Bean now that she’s “all grown up”! And your activities with the little ones and the paint sounded fun.
I have Sage (just turned 3 last week) every Tuesday morning, which includes an hour at the children’s story time in the library. We have a blast. She is very high on the verbal end so it’s quite entertaining.
I don’t get to spend so much time with Sparrow now that she’s in school all day (TK) and has ballet on Saturday mornings. Last Sunday, though, her mom was swamped with preparations for her mom and sister’s arrival from CA for Sage’s birthday so I didn’t go to church and kept both girls all day. I was so surprised to see how nicely they play together now. I hadn’t had them both since Christmas vacation. Sage understands about “sharing” and if Sage didn’t understand a made up game that Sparrow would invent Sparrow would just pivot to something with no issue.
I hope we both continue to enjoy our granddaughters!
What a lovely story, Della! I find that if I am patient, my son or his wife will get overwhelmed or the au pair goes on a trip and suddenly, it’s “Mom, can you take the girls?” I’m lucky to have a once-a-week date with my seven year old granddaughter, and that she looks forward to it also.
Our oldest grandchildren are now 14 and almost-10. The almost-ten-year-old recently said she no longer believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy. This is good and normal (I thought she was actually a little old for Santa and his buddies), but I found myself slightly melancholy nonetheless. Thank goodness Halley’s little girl is coming up, and we can enjoy this all over again with her!
We had a challenge this year with my 7 year old granddaughter wanting to let her 2 year old sister in on the secret of Santa. We used persuasion – reminding her how lovely it was to believe in these characters and let’s just wait a few years to explain it to her, ok?