Grandma with the Middle Ones

Three cousins, second, third and fourth graders now get together a couple of times a year (they live at opposite sides of the continent) and I am in wonder at how they take up just where they left off! They swim like fish and spend hours in the pool and hot tub. They have amazing and inventive games going all the time. This year it seems to focus on Greek gods and goddesses. These imaginative games seem to seamlessly segue from the fields and gardens to the pool to the upstairs playrooms and bedrooms where they have spread out Legos and blocks and villages and trains. Then, suddenly, like birds taking off, they all ride bikes like mad up and down the road and over the fields. Or they appear at my studio where they can find anything they want - paper, paints, clay, glue, scissors, yarn for some project or other.

Our usually tidy place suddenly has bikes thrown in the bushes, swim towels left in heaps, tiny bikinis on the couch. At the end of the day I grump around and all is put back in some semblance of order. I love to read to them before bed- seems like something I have done forever with kids. I always try to read some book that has not been made into a movie or game. The three older grandchildren remember when we read 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. And there were many others. Because my grandson, Quincy, lives nearby and spends a lot of time with us, we've been through the whole Little House series and a whole lot else. Cuddly night by night.

Our children, who had been read to through all of their childhoods really seem to understand how important this daily event is. But they are tired at night after their work and some of the time this daily reading doesn't happen with their kids, the books pile up and get scattered under the laundry etc. So, I am pleased to have this grandmotherly task, among others.

I always knew that I would be a rotten home school Mom. And I never was.  So being Grandma all day for a number of days is a new and exhausting experience.

When I awake I think about all the stuff we'll do today. It begins with enormous breakfast that lasts for an hour. (Usually, I would be into my exercise routine for an hour, then half an hour of Spanish on line, then some brain games, and then tending to the many gardens.) So, none of that today. Pancakes or French toast it is.

And todayI have promised to fix the stuffed horse made so beautifully and lovingly a few days ago by my granddaughter out of an old cashmere sweater. It has suddenly gotten a tear in her neck.

Today we'll go to the library and then visit Patty Cakes (the Cake museum) and then do a few errands. Every time we have to get out of or into the car there are the issues of the booster seats etc. I forgot about this.

I am too exhausted by now to be able to think about going home and figuring out lunch, cleaning up after it, so I say I will take them to McDonalds. (They are aghast! They know that I never do this. Well, this is the first time in three years.) We order for the two vegetarians, after asking about what fat the potatoes are fried in, the really picky eater who eats only white food. My bottom line is no sugary drinks. Actually, it was O.K. We threw away the trash and all was easy. I love those conversations I have with kids and at lunch we discussed David and Goliath. And, also, was Jesus real?

So, we try to pick up the tire that was supposed to be fixed, and then head home. I was imagining a period of lying supine on the couch and reading the NYT. It kind of worked but I heard lots of small shrieks as the posse went from here to there.

But there is a whole afternoon to explore in the fields and in the garden and swimming in the pool before dinner. My husband monitored the pool to give me a break.

The best time of the day is when they are in their p.j.s, teeth brushed, ready for the story to be read aloud.

I love thinking that these kids and the other older grandchildren who have also spent so much time here will have these idiosyncratic grandparents to remember. And I look forward to having those very youngest ones have this experience too.