Adventures in Grandparenting

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Again this weekend, I was reminded of why young and not old people have babies and raise children. Steve and I kept Landry, 2, and Finn, almost 7, from Thursday until Monday night, and it was an adventure. We tried to balance our time between playing games with Finn and following Landry around. At times, they played together well, such as playing train in the playroom.

Finn is a great game-player because he’s always cheerful whether he wins or loses and has a good, logical mind that helps him win often. His favorite is UNO; he also enjoys Mexican Train dominoes and some other games we have.

He loves for the two of us to use my phone to play Scrabble against the computer, so I suggested we play “real Scrabble.” I got out my “antique” Scrabble board from my childhood and explained to him that when a child is first learning how to play, everyone shows their letters and they help each other. He was fine with that and even managed, with some coaching, of course, to beat me. That made his day.

Landry’s favorite activity is diapering a baby. The baby can be anything from a baby doll in the playroom to a stuffed rabbit to a china lady doll that’s usually parked in my upstairs hall corner. She grabs the changing pad from its usual place and slaps it on the floor, banging the baby on top of it. She gets a diaper from her diaper bag and never forgets the wipes. Grabbing them from the holder is her favorite part. Of course her diaper never fits the little dolls, but that doesn’t seem to bother her at all. She will look up at me, triumphant, saying, “I change the baby’s diaper!”

She loves playing at the little table in the corner of the kitchen and pretending to eat and drink there. Sometimes she really does eat there, since I’ll put her leftover food there for her to come back to when she’s hungry.

We took them out Thursday to the Butterfly Show at the Krohn Conservatory and Friday to the Viking exhibit at the Museum Center. They loved both. One butterfly stayed on Finn’s hand so long he almost got bored. He enjoyed the Viking displays, which were right at his eye level. He especially loved the interactive screen where he got to build a Viking ship.
He enjoyed telling us what he’d learned—for example, that Viking helmets did not have horns and Vikings were not filthy but were very concerned with cleanliness.

Saturday we took them to Indianapolis to meet their cousins Kinley and Knox for lunch. Landry kept saying, “We going to Aunt Gina’s house?” no matter how much I explained that we were meeting Uncle Josh and Aunt Gina for lunch. This made a 10-year stretch for seeing those grandchildren every month and we didn’t want to break our streak.

Speaking of food, pizza and three-ways were the main food of the weekend. Landry liked our barbecued ribs and they both like the Italian spaghetti. Landry ate her grilled cheese sandwich well, but Finn really didn’t have much of an appetite most of the time. When I offered him some sticks of jicama to dip in Ranch dressing, he said, “Is this a vegetable?”

I said, “I guess so. I hadn’t thought about it. I just know you like ranch dressing.”

He said, “I only have to eat one vegetable at a meal.” His broccoli was enough for that day.

On the other hand, Landry loves vegetables. At the Indy restaurant, she ate the grape tomatoes from our appetizer, so the server brought her a plate of them and they were gone very quickly. I was surprised that she even gobbled up coleslaw with her ribs.

Finn arrived with a little cough which grew as the days passed. By Sunday we decided that even though he was very good about coughing into his elbow, he shouldn’t share his germs with his church buddies. So I stayed home with the children and Steve went to class, church, and Life Group without us. When he got home, he took Finn to the local Urgent Care. The meds he got there have helped a lot. Today we were notified that the strep test came back positive, so it’s good that he was already on medication for that.

Their parents were the ones that got a bum deal; their flight home was canceled and they were stuck in an airport hotel, hoping to get out. They didn’t get on a plane until 24 hours later, each having to miss a day of work. They got in at 9 last night, exhausted and frustrated.

They came home to one sick child and another who had over the weekend learned to climb out of her crib. Joy! Just what they need—an un-contained two-year-old! But they were supremely happy to be home and their children were overjoyed to see them this morning, I’m sure. After all, a child can only take so much of over-indulgent grandparents before they are ready to get back to their own loving yet firmer parents.

Even to your old age and gray hairs
    I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
    I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

                                             Isaiah 46:4