On being a grandmother

Wow! Thanks to Charles Rodenberger for telling me that blogger saves drafts. Here's the Monday night post I thought I lost, though it's probably still of interest only to me.

I spent this weekend in Frisco with son Jamie and his famly--well actually they weren't all there. Friday afternoon I had brief glimpses of daughter-in-law Mel and granddaughter Maddie and then they were off to Brownie camp. But four-year-old Edie and I spent much of the weekend together, because her dad had a triathlon Sunday a.m. (He came in 7th in his age group, which is pretty darn good and I'm proud.)

Much of Saturday, for him, was taken up with check-in and all the pre-race stuff. Edie and I played with her dollhouse, sort of read a few books, made blueberry muffins (she has her techinique all figured out for that one, and it's executed on the kitchen floor) and watched the food channel. By the time Daddy came home, we were antsy and a bit tired of each other, I think. But Sunday, the day I knew in advance would be mine, went smoothly. Edie declined to help me fix Norwegian hamburgers and mashed potatoes, but she did snap beans with me--though I discovered she was twisting them. I tried to show her about snapping, and she said, "I'd rather do it my way."

She watched "Meet the Press" (I doubt she got much out of Bill Cosby's thoughts on racism in today's America and what the black community needs to do, though I thought it was really interesting) and then came to me and said she wanted to watch the food channel. So for much of the day that's what we did. When someone made dates stuffed with ricotta, wrapped in bacon, and baked, she said solemnly, "I think I would like that." When I asked if she liked sushi, she said, "Some. I like California roll." A sophisticate at a very young age! And yet she had filled the weekend by giving me a list of the things she doesn't like--an extensive list, including chocolate, though Sunday night I found her happily eating chocolate cake--go figure!

Sunday night we had the dinner I had cooked. Maddie was full of the wonders of her camping trip-a rock with a crustacean in it, a biarre rock that looked painted but wasn't, the copperhead she had seen, the silly song-game she had learned. Everyone was exhausted and there were meltdowns. We all went to bed early.

Today getting home was an endurance contest--we left in plenty of time for the 8:45 train but torrential rains slowed traffic to a standstill and we missed it. I finally took the 10:08 train and was in Fort Worth by 11. A friend picked me up, and we had lunch at a nice bistro. Then I dropped my car off to have the dent repaired where someone hit me and went to pick up a rental--the whole process took nearly two hours, to my dismay. I felt like I'd had all of the day I wanted.

So I have no great new intellectual insights, no literary wonders to report, just that grandmothering is great and four-year-olds can teach you a lot. And then there are the talks I have with Jamie in the car--where I learn a lot about how my kids think and how the world goes. It's pretty great being a grandmother and the mother of neat really nice adults.