Seven

You can skip this one if you aren't interested in little kids. But, really, who cannot be beguiled and fascinated with the ever changing nature of the young male?

"Quincy," I announce at breakfast when he is devouring potato pancakes and strawberries, "The house cleaner is coming today and we need to clean up some of this stuff."

As grandparents, we have a different status from parents who are mostly busy with their work and life and driving everywhere for lessons and sports and making dentist appointments and play dates. Here on the ranch life is easy and rich with possibility, especially with this seven year old boy. He's always cheerfully part of the program, up for anything. So of course we make it possible.

Yes, there are standards here!! I pay attention to hygiene in my way. He has to wash hands before meals, brush his teeth at night, bathing and hairwashing are negotiable and he can wear bedroom slippers in the yard. Don't read this, Mom.

From the moment he comes (for weekends or longer) our house and yard and barn become instantly littered with his projects. Bottom line is that he must make a passageway through the toys from the top of the steps through the playroom to his room. Stepping in those legos in the dark as I go to check on him before I go to bed will surely cripple me.

Our bargain this morning is that he will clean up the playroom, put the thousands of Legos on a large tray, the trains in their baskets, the hot wheels extravaganza where I do not have to see them. The play room will be in shape for vacuuming, and his room will not be touched. And then I discover that the hall closet downstairs (with a secret door to it) has been occupied. In addition to the vacuum cleaner, old holiday decorations and a water heater, there are tiny incursions from this seven-year-old. A Lego construction, a camping lantern, office supplies and tiny plastic people.

As I make my morning rounds around the house and yard I find many small indications that a creative seven year old has been here. The coffee tables have his books and stickers and always some stray Legos. Playmobile parts, camoflaged on the carpets, lie in wait to maim me. The yard has lumps of pine needles gathered for some imaginative play, and a small tent set up the day before by grandpa. The zipper on the tent is stuck. In the days when I was a Mom of small boys, I went through the house every night and shoved everything into a bin.

I forgot how much fixing and tending is required. Now, I can patiently fix the stuck zipper or glue the tiny broken part, squinting through my reading glasses. When we flew kites in the field today, I spent most of the time untangling kite line. Grandpa showed Quincy how to play out the line and we all ran around avoiding the kite eating trees. We were patient as Quincy kept hanging up on palm fronds and cow pies. He told me how fun it was for him. "But hard!" Eventually, all three kites were beautifully in the air.

And, as I had forgotten, there is the constant problem of finding things! So we look for his beloved action figure, or some tiny Lego thing, or his shoes..

Seven year olds are so talkative! Every second there is a question or a comment or opinion. As we see the newspaper at breakfast time I read some stories out loud and we all talk about them. The story about the ship that sank off Italy was pretty interesting.

Quincy is raring to go to be a competent person. After meals he helps in the kitchen by clearing the table and loading the dishwasher, putting in the detergent and turning the machine on. He lights the candles for dinner and carefully snuffs them out after.

This little guy has such charming politeness, one wants to accommodate him. When he is here we love it so much but it does mean that we are always "ON".

You raise your own children, rejoice in having grandchildren. We have six grandchildren and some of them have spent major time here. Other grandparents have been major players in the life of these kids. This is what that 'village' is.