Spending Time with the Grandchildren

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward." Ps. 127:3

The Summer Children by Edgar A. Guest

I like 'em in the winter when their cheeks are slightly pale,

I like 'em in the spring time when the March winds blow a gale;

But when summer suns have tanned 'em and they're racing to and fro,

I somehow think the children make the finest sort of show.

How many people think of children in this way? With child-abuse and neglect at epic proportions today, my guess would be not enough.

Every time I'm with my grandchildren they are such a delight! I love listening to the funny things they say at times and watching them express their feelings and thoughts. They're so emotional and dramatic in how they communicate things! And the energy they have! How many of us adults wouldn't give just about anything to have that kind of stamina, strength and tireless determination to learn to do something new again? Just watching them can make you tired!

My grandchildren are growing up so fast now that it's amazing to watch and kind of scary too! My 10 year old grandson is offering to "teach me" to make backgrounds and add things to a MySpace page! They have iTouch iPods and they're so technologically savvy it's frightening and yet thrilling! I know if I need help with anything I can just ask the grandkids because they are learning to do it all! :)

The other day I spent the afternoon at the pool with my granddaughter Aimee and she was trying to learn to dive. She practiced over and over again until she was finally getting it down. She was literally water-logged before we had to leave! I love listening to her laugh when she gets tickled about something! She's going through those crazy pre-teen periods where "the crazies" just grab hold of her and won't let go at times! She can either make you laugh until you almost cry or make you want to go and lock yourself in a closet until it passes. She's discovered the joy of reading now too and she's going through books like my middle daughter used to do and still does. We made a trip to the book store the other day and she found a few books by her favorite authors (Lauren Myracle and Nancy Krulik: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Lauren+Myracle and http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Nancy+Krulik) and she read them all in 2 days! Now she's without books again! So we made a trip yesterday to the downtown library and she found a few more that she wanted to read. It's a joy seeing my grandchildren learn to love reading! Reading is one of my passions also! I still love the children's books most! Sometimes I take more delight in reading them than the adult books. Children's Books are so delightful! The best part about being a Grandparent is that you get to read the "good" childhood books all over again!

Aimee has to start back to school now on August 4th! I couldn't believe they were going back so soon! That reminds me that these lazy, hazy days of summer are about to come to an end and I hate to see that more than anything! That also means that I'll have less time to spend with the grandchildren now as they'll have to be in bed earlier and they'll have homework that needs to be completed. It'll just be weekends now and not much more swimming left. That saddens me.

Yesterday, we got to spend some time with our grandson Daegan and his Cousin Collin and Grandpa asked them if they wanted to watch a movie he picked up at the library just to watch with them. (Grandpa really wanted to just sit in his easy chair and chill-out!) Of course, the boys being "BOYS" through and through, didn't much like the thought of sitting in a chair on a summer evening and watching a movie! ha ha! So Grandma, much to the delight of the boys and despair of Grandpa (because it meant he couldn't sit and relax all evening), asked the boys if they'd like to go find a parking lot or go downtown by the bridge and take their skateboards. Grandpa groaned at this thought. :) Of course this brought cheers and "I love you Grandma" from the boys. As Daegan says "Skateboarding is my life!!" So into the car we went with our travel mugs of coffee and Grandma's cameras and off to the parking lots we went to watch the boys do their fantastic tricks on the skateboards that made Grandma almost afraid to watch at times and made Grandpa ask the boys to "Please don't make me have to go to the Emergency Room tonight!"
We had a great time and Grandma got some terrific videos of which I've promised the boys I'd put on DVD for them so they can watch themselves and see what mistakes they made so they can improve their maneuvers.

After being downtown until the boys were both ready to drop over from exertion, we came home to make some sandwiches and have something to drink and get showers and wait for Mom to come and pick them up after she got back from her dinner date.

All in all, Grandma and Grandpa had a wonderful time watching our Grandkids and marveling at how fast they're growing and how much they're learning! The time goes by so fast and soon they'll be grown and have families of their own and very busy lives and these times of just being "kids" and having fun will be long gone and just a memory. But thank God for memories and time with our Grandkids that we'll be able to sit back and look back on for many years to come.