Grandkids! I'm featuring this guy because he had a birthday yesterday and I just love his hair in this photo. I love all my grandsons though. All 6 of them. You can't even begin to imagine what it sounds like at our house on Sunday evenings when they are there together. Spaced all the way from age 10 down to age 2, they provide us with all kinds of stimulation. Add to that two big dogs, a puppy, spouses and four siblings who seem to revert back to their younger years when they are together, there you have it-total family chaos.
We weren't in a hurry to be grandparents. In fact, I remember that my husband had a timeline that stated that he would not be a grandparent before a certain age. I don't remember if my oldest daughter complied or not. I think it was close.
The grandkids have been hard on us (our wallets) though. We can't go anywhere where we don't see something that we want to get for at least one, if not all, of the grandkids. "Wouldn't so-and-so love that? Can you imagine how much fun that would be for them? Do you think there'd be room in the yard for that? Where would we put that? We really need to move into a bigger house. That's kind of expensive, but hey, you only live once. I always wanted one of those when I was a kid. Well, if we get this, then we will have to get that to go with it. You know, we got this for one of them last year, so we should get it for the rest of them too. Let's torture their parents and buy this! Sweet Revenge!"
Now, I'm sure that only grandparents understand these kinds of statements. We don't worry about them sleeping or eating right. We just fill the freezer with ice cream, the pantry basket with candy (or bee-bops) as the youngest one says, fill them up and send them home. When we take them hiking or to the creek, we don't worry that they don't have extra clothes or shoes, we just line the seats of the truck with plastic bags, take them to McDonalds so that everyone can question what kind of parents do these poor children have and then drive them home. We are the main supporters of the concession stands during sporting events. We keep "Get Air" in business. We know the kid's menu for every restaurant in town. We cause servers to shutter when we walk in and say "a table for 13 and 5 kid's menus please. And oh, can we have extra crayons please?" We'll drive 3 hours to go to a good toy store, just to see what's available. I have a file on my phone just with photos of things the little guys have pointed out to us or that we've seen in a store somewhere. We make lists of places we've been that one or more of them might like when they reach a certain age. At Christmastime, we'll fill a cart full of toys and then go get another one when we run out of room. It's all consuming!
I've learned that family gatherings are not going to look like they do on Hallmark Christmas movies, but that's okay because when it's all said and done, all that really matters is that they remember that we loved them and that they had fun with us. In their latter years they will remember Pappy pile-ons, foosball tournaments in the basement, ice cream at the farm with the goldfish and real cows to pet, the train that whistles under the Christmas tree, jumping in the the trailer in the driveway, fireworks on 4th of July, and many other memories that are yet to be made. I know that I have memories like these of my grandparents and they are some of my fondest.
Grandchildren remind us that we don't live forever but we can be forever young when we're with them. Thank you Lord for grandkids.
We weren't in a hurry to be grandparents. In fact, I remember that my husband had a timeline that stated that he would not be a grandparent before a certain age. I don't remember if my oldest daughter complied or not. I think it was close.
The grandkids have been hard on us (our wallets) though. We can't go anywhere where we don't see something that we want to get for at least one, if not all, of the grandkids. "Wouldn't so-and-so love that? Can you imagine how much fun that would be for them? Do you think there'd be room in the yard for that? Where would we put that? We really need to move into a bigger house. That's kind of expensive, but hey, you only live once. I always wanted one of those when I was a kid. Well, if we get this, then we will have to get that to go with it. You know, we got this for one of them last year, so we should get it for the rest of them too. Let's torture their parents and buy this! Sweet Revenge!"
Now, I'm sure that only grandparents understand these kinds of statements. We don't worry about them sleeping or eating right. We just fill the freezer with ice cream, the pantry basket with candy (or bee-bops) as the youngest one says, fill them up and send them home. When we take them hiking or to the creek, we don't worry that they don't have extra clothes or shoes, we just line the seats of the truck with plastic bags, take them to McDonalds so that everyone can question what kind of parents do these poor children have and then drive them home. We are the main supporters of the concession stands during sporting events. We keep "Get Air" in business. We know the kid's menu for every restaurant in town. We cause servers to shutter when we walk in and say "a table for 13 and 5 kid's menus please. And oh, can we have extra crayons please?" We'll drive 3 hours to go to a good toy store, just to see what's available. I have a file on my phone just with photos of things the little guys have pointed out to us or that we've seen in a store somewhere. We make lists of places we've been that one or more of them might like when they reach a certain age. At Christmastime, we'll fill a cart full of toys and then go get another one when we run out of room. It's all consuming!
I've learned that family gatherings are not going to look like they do on Hallmark Christmas movies, but that's okay because when it's all said and done, all that really matters is that they remember that we loved them and that they had fun with us. In their latter years they will remember Pappy pile-ons, foosball tournaments in the basement, ice cream at the farm with the goldfish and real cows to pet, the train that whistles under the Christmas tree, jumping in the the trailer in the driveway, fireworks on 4th of July, and many other memories that are yet to be made. I know that I have memories like these of my grandparents and they are some of my fondest.
Grandchildren remind us that we don't live forever but we can be forever young when we're with them. Thank you Lord for grandkids.
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