Grandchildren

Let me start by saying that I have four grandchildren, two girls and two boys raging in age from 22 months to 15 3/4 years. Yes, we must count the months and the quarters, they are important.

I am blessed to have my grandchildren all live within an hour of my home so I have the opportunity to see them quite often. Some more often than others, but I see all of them quite often. My oldest granddaughter reminds me that she lived with my wife and I the first two years of her life. She doesn't have actual memories of that, but she has seen pictures and is reminded of that by different family members. Some days she asks, "grandpa, when can I come back and live with you again?" My answer is always the same, "you can always come and visit but you live with mommy and daddy!"

My children often comment that grandchildren seem to "get away with" a lot of things children never "got away with". Maybe they're right.

Last weekend our 22 month old grandson came for the weekend without mom and dad. We played, we went for walks, we had a lot of fun. Meal time was, well, interesting. Most meals he sat at the table with my wife and ate really well, but, there were a few food items he didn't like. Instead of waving those food items away he would take them, chew them up into the tiniest diced pieces and then spit them out. One evening I was eating some sugar snap peas and handed him one, it fit in his little hand and he could feed himself while he walked around. He started in the kitchen and then moved into the family room. A few minutes later I went into the kitchen for something and found a little pile of shredded and diced green stuff on the floor, the sugar snap peas.

Now when my children small I would have yelled, maybe even swatted a child who spit out food on the floor. But, not my grandchildren. I looked at the pile of peas on the floor, shook my head and laughed as I cleaned it up, no harm no foul.

I know that my grandchildren aren't perfect, but according to my children they get away with murder at my house and when they are with me.

I disagree with my children, but I remind them it is not my job to raise and discipline their children. It is my job to have fun with them and love them. Parents have to parent. Grandparents get to have fun.

Let's talk about some fun. Last summer I got to go kayaking in the ocean with my granddaughters. We were near Santa Cruz in an area where the ocean is pretty calm, no surfing to speak of, so we were able to launch kayaks and paddle out from the shore. While kayaking we found ourselves in the middle of several sea lions, maybe 6 or 8. Pretty soon we were paddling back and forth, first we would follow the sea lions and then they would follow us. This went on for quite awhile and then they, the sea lions, got tired of us and left. After the sea lions left my youngest granddaughter went back to shore and just my oldest granddaughter and I remained on the water. We were just sitting there when I saw my youngest granddaughter motioning on shore. When I looked where she was pointing I smiled and yelled at my oldest granddaughter. Just a hundred feet from us were five dolphins swimming parallel to the shore coming up out of the water.

I started paddling on a path that I hoped would take me real close to the dolphins. When I looked back at the shore I saw my wife with her arms around my youngest granddaughter. I turned back and my oldest granddaughter and I raced out to meet the dolphins. For almost ten minutes we paddled towards them and then the dolphins turned to meet us. We got within 15 feet of them before they dived down and hurried past us.

When I returned to shore I was excited to talk with my wife about the dolphins and she was equally anxious to tell me about my youngest granddaughter. It seems that when the first dolphin surfaced all my granddaughter saw was the fin on the dolphin's back and thought it was a shark. That's why my wife was holding her, reassuring her that it was a dolphin, not a shark, and her sister and I were alright.

I have seen all the bumper stickers, "Grandchildren, God's gift for not killing your own children"; "If I had known grandchildren were so much fun I would have had them first!" and they go on and on. They may sound like cliches but for me they are true.

Thinking of grandchildren leads naturally into thoughts of grandparents. Maybe next time.