Christmas is always spent at grandmas house. Her house always has Easter eggs to color and hide.
Grandmas house is the only place to be on birthdays.
Grandma has swings, little swimming pools, and surprises hid away in drawers.
There is candy hid somewhere--they know it. What a good game! I tried hiding things in the top shelf in the kitchen,
but that had to be stopped when they learned how to climb.
She has nice, smooth white creamy stuff in a jar in the bedroom. It's fun to spread it all over faces.
They were sorry about getting it on the bed.
What is this stuff in this little tube? It's a pretty color. Let's get it on as many things as we can before
Grandma finds us. Our faces, the wall, the living room rug. We always have a lot fun at Grandma's.
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Well after a few years of this, Grandma made some new rules! It's like this, I told my children, and I proceeded
to lay down the law.
I will sit with the kids once in a while, but don't take it for granted anymore.
It worked for awhile. I had days to myself. I could go anywhere I wanted to.
I could watch T.V. I could actually see a movie with no cartoons. It was heaven. For awhile.
I thought I might relax the rules a little and decided I could baby-sit once a month. They say you only remember
the good times. That's true. I had already forgotten about all the extra work... and I missed them.
Hubby was saying, "Why don't the grand-babies stay anymore?" He had always been busy outside the house when they
were there. He was with them after they had their bath and were quiet and sleepy. When he was ready to watch TV,
they were already in bed. He thought they were much easier to raise than our own were. Well, wake up and smell
the coffee, dear.
Anyway, as I was saying, I will baby-sit once a month. I never was any good at arithmetic. There
are usually four week-ends in a month, right? I had four children close by, my oldest had seen the green grass
and moved out of state.
If I baby-sat for each one, once a month, that meant I was baby-sitting every week-end! Again! Oh, Lord!
It only took me a month to figure that one out.
It was about this time that I began talking to myself. I thought all the stuff about listening to your heart
was rubbish, until it reminded me that my arithmetic was was lousy.
Of course the kids thought I needed a rest -- I must have looked tired.
They said me and Dad should go out once in a while, dinner or something.
Dinner would be nice, I agreed, but who would watch the babies?