Grand Visit
For 5 weeks, Grandma (I) got more exercise after Pop (my
husband) put away the stationary bike to make room for our daughter and her two
children. We enjoyed typical activities grandchildren and their grandparents
have fun doing: Birthday celebrations; Fireworks; Sesame Place; Making butter
in a baby food jar; Collecting flowers from the yards to put in water tinged
with food coloring; Adding ice to Grandma’s Just Add Ice orchid; Visiting the
pets who live next door; Feeding Grandma’s 29-year-old turtle.
After their 18 hour trip, an additional hour and a half car
ride to the New Jersey shore wasn’t a good idea for a 4-year-old or a 1-year-old.
So, we played in the giant circle of sand in the backyard. Pop had conveniently
taken down our 4 foot, above ground pool just before they arrived.
Dropping Grandma’s marbles down holes in the floors, left from
our old radiators, seemed as fun as digging holes in sand. Grandma needs all her
marbles. So she suggested lowering highlighters down the holes with twine, and
taping the twine to the floor. My daughter volunteered glow sticks in place of
the highlighters. We went down into the basement and awed at them dangling from
the basement ceiling.
Back upstairs, Pop trumped Grandma’s paper marble shoot with
his PVC pipe that doubled as a weapon. Tupperware worked fine as a depository at
the end of the paper cylinder. But the marbles ran so fast through the pipe,
that we needed to use our beanbag chair as a landing pad so they didn’t
ricochet out of the plastic bowl and shoot someone’s eye out.
Our volcano experiment went over big with a gallon of
vinegar and 5lb. box of baking soda. Food coloring’s a popular ingredient in
this, and other such liquid fun. Except when it’s too hot to go outside and
water balloons are in play: Grandma filled them at the kitchen sink; Grandson
threw them out windows and doors while his sister napped. When the temperature
dropped a bit, collecting the colorful remains became a unique seek and find
game.
A neighboring tree branch that hung over the deck of the
house next door finally fell. During breakfast, we watched through the window
and waved at the lawn service man as he measured and took pictures of damage to
the deck. Our adult eyes widened at other dead branches leaning towards our
house.
During a doctor’s appointment, Grandma realized the 9 lbs.
she thought she had lost was due to our bathroom scale being 9 lbs. off. At the
end of the 5 week grand visit, a bigger problem weighed in the kitchen. What to
do with all the snacks our daughter had left?
