Quincy, my youngest grandson, has been here for the long weekend. He was delivered here by friends who are staying the weekend in the guest house. He boiled out of their car, talking a mile a minute and was eager to get here and reconnect with the place he has known since infancy. He calls our place his other home, and of course, it is. He went right to his room, shedding shoes, luggage, stuffed animals and the lunch box from school.
Soon we began to hear the familiar sounds of toys being pulled out and assembled in the upstairs playroom. And then he begins to come down periodically to tell us everything on his mind. I wonder what "unit" he'll be in this visit. Six weeks ago his mom decided that Quincy needed to have more childhood and less screens so now there is no t.v., no video games, no smart phones. No problem!
It is a joy to see his active imagination at work. First of all he got out the horrid train set with hundreds of opaque pieces that we gave him when he was three (and he was way too young for it). Now, the whole set up is easy for him and all that was needed was a fresh battery, easily installed.
With this boy, just turned seven, life is easy. His tether is long and he easily rides his bike a mile and back to the gate and we don't worry. He drives the golf cart all over the place and gives "tour guide" talks along the way. He took one of the guests out to see his museum he has made over the last year in a remote cabin. He explained the exhibits of bones he has found on the property, and even gave her a guest pass so she could touch the bones. What a little bureaucrat!
And so much else in a weekend! He'd written a book and made a board game. Before a dinner for guests he cleaned up the downstairs of the house, prepared cheese hors d'oeurves, and arrranged for a predinner concert in which he starred playing the violin from the stair landing. (He has no clue about the violin. He takes recorder lessons, but he loves the violin we have here.)
All through the day there are all these interesting and fantastic happenings in his mind. And all through the day he dings me with his thoughts and suggestions.
I love this wonderfully interesting and handsome grandson, so worth the effort of having had him here over and over from the time he was a baby and really hard and picking him up hurt our backs and we never slept well and we never had a moment to call our own.
We used to say that 'quality' time bested 'quantity' time. NOT!
As a grandma talking, I think that the quantity of time I have spent with Quincy is stellar. My oldest grandson, Diego, now in college, has also spent many hours here and with me, and again, that quantity time gives us both such a bedrock of love and attention.
My grandchildren on the west coast are wonderful kids and I am so glad their parents continually send us photos, school work pages, drawings. It kind of keeps us connected between trips out to see them. Two of Diego's brothers visit occasionally and we so love their visits. But it is not the same as quantity and frequency. We send stuff to our grandchildren and often we have no idea if they ever receive them. Barking into a void gets old.
In our society we want our kids to go forth and do what they want. So often this means that they will be far away from parents who will be the grandparents of their children. And it's meant to be! So, whoever the nearest grandparents are, they are it.
But, for now, I am so amazingly happy to really know a few of my grandchildren who can be here, and I always want to keep up the potential connections.
I have a feeling that I may see quite a bit of the upcoming twin grandkids!
This is the name of our mobile society. For our far flung grandchildren I rely on their other grandmas and grandpas to
Now he is that quite capable and responsible seven year old person, a joy to me.
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