Grandparenthood – The Greatest Role
Grandparenthood – The Greatest Role that I have ever been in to date. Oh my goodness. Can you even handle the cuteness of that picture??!! My grandchildren are phenomenal human beings and if I am blessed with more, that would be amazing. If I simply get to be the best Yayi ever to these 2 cuties…I am just as happy!
My kids have made a giant sacrifice to come hang out and have dinner every Friday night. I love it. Honestly, I know that it is hard and probably inconvenient for them but it fills my cup so much. I love having my children all around my table. The loud conversations, babies into everything, food cooking, kids eating out of the pans, everything to me is wonderful.
Silence
Since so many of my kids have moved out, my house is so quiet. I has been hard to transition from cooking for 14 people on any given night, to cooking for 4 and I am not a fan. The chaos is comforting to me, so when my kids come to my house, it is just bliss. I look forward to my Friday nights every week!
Lately, I have been picking a kid and I cook what they want for that evening. I started at the end of July with my 5th child. This seems to make my kids feel like they have a say and we are guaranteed they will like what I fix. Now, I have some “extra” kids that I may have to make something a little different for them, but I don’t even care. I will do what you want if you just come and hang out!
Grandparenthood
Frankly, I was prepared. I was thrilled when my oldest daughter got pregnant but my mind went to “I will never be like my Granny or my mom for that matter.” In my eye, grandmothers have short hair, gray, and wear bifocals and floral prints. I had pink/purple hair that was long and I don’t own florals. However, I do have bifocals. Seriously, I thought those were prerequisites and that I was ill-equipped.
There is nothing quite like the feeling of walking into a room and a child burst into a smile and scrambling to get closer to you. I bring them joy simply by doing that. They want nothing from me but to walk into a room. That fills my heart to a capacity that I didn’t even know existed. I feel like when the Grinch goes from this stone heart to it exploding.
Pure joy.
My Grandchildren
Then Charleigh as born. Oh. My. Word. First, watching my daughter evolve into the best mommy ever was amazing. Holy Cow. Then, they placed this perfection in my arms and I was done. Simply stick a fork in me, I am done. She was so tiny and beautiful with these giant eyes! We prayed for her to get her daddy’s big eyes and cow eyelashes and she did. However, she looks so much like Bug…my heart. I took care of her while they worked and it was glorious.
Next up, Apollo. Stop it right now. That child. His birth was a bit more traumatic then Charleigh’s and he was tinier than she was but good grief. That boy. I watched my second daughter sacrifice her life to bring this boy into the world a bit early. This was during covid and I could only stay for so long, in the hospital caring for my baby child. Whereas when Bug had Charleigh, I was blessed with night shift while she was there. Again, watching my second daughter rock this whole motherhood thing makes me think I did something right when I raised her!
Blessing Upon Blessing
I would love to show their faces. They, to me, look like a healthy dose of my daughters with a splash of their daddies! I love it and their unique qualities. Charleigh is content bringing all her toys and putting them in your lap or sitting and reading a book with you. Apollo never stops moving and prefers to go go go instead of being held. They love opera and the rat pack. Both the kids love to be read to and sung to with hand motions, of course. If a song doesn’t have hand motions, we invent them.
I would love as many grandchildren that my children want to have because they are what this world needs more of. However, I respect my children, their desires, their bodies, and their choices and if 2 is all I will ever have, then I am totally good with that. These two grandchildren….geez….if you could only see/hear them.
Our names were supposed to be Lolli and Pop. Charleigh started calling us Yayi and Poop. Now, it is mainly Yayi, mom mom, Llllllllllooollllllliiiii, and a consistent Pop. Apollo can say Pop but not Yayi (or Lolli) but we are working on it. He just meets us with this grin that is the best thing ever.
Sigh…….I love them and I love this role!
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