Kids everywhere!

At eight o'clock I am going up to the main house to get Quincy on his way to bed. This includes having a bowl of homemade ice cream, left over from last night, a long discussion of his latest origami invention, a lengthy bath (with the water covered in toys), reading out loud from our favorite chapter book, Mr Twiggs's Mistake (about a mole that grows to the size of a rhino.) Then, close the shades, tuck him in, kisses..

So, all that is done now. We are all tired after a week of my son and the two cousins from Vashon, an island off Seattle.

The three cousins, close in age, played and played, mostly outside doing imagination play with hamster voices and lots of running and jumping. Sometimes they played inside with board games and origami constructions.

For one of the days I was alone with the three kids and I was aware of the social issues kids this age have, jockeying for power and figuring out fairness. Exhausting for an adult, but necessary to address their concerns.

My son was pretty much on full time and did the dad stuff of taking all the kids on outings and cooked fabulous bacon for breakfast. He does not do hair or think about clean laundry! But I am delighted to wash my grandaughter's long hair and then fix it with the scrunchies we bought. The last evening I found sparklers for all the kids and they ran around the yard windmilling those lights and we adults loved it.

Being grandma means that I must be the one who thinks up good stuff to do, has a fun agenda, lots of supplies, and keeps the troops rolling. Grandpa feeds us all.

Other kids are so important to me as well. Here is a photo of Natalie working on her Pi tee shirt. She's in my special math class I have each week. These eight kids in our local public school were issued to me as very bright and needing more. How I love them! We are about halfway through a hands-on algebra program. Sometimes, we do other math things than this algebra program, such as making math tee shirts celebrating Pi and our new knowledge of how to calculate the circumference and area of circles. These kids are nine and ten years old.

Retirees who have no grandchildren at hand and do not volunteer for kids miss a lot, I think. It is said that kids keep you young- true enough. Kids keep you breathing sharply, bending deeply, thinking outside your box, and giving and receiving hugs and kisses and serious conversation.

I always want to have kids everywhere I am.