At least plastic cows don’t poop in the house

Yesterday I spent the day with my two granddaughters. The oldest turns 4 in April, the younger turns 2 in April. It was a busy day. I am still recovering!

My youngest son and his wife were moving into a new house that they will be renting. My job to help out with the move was to keep the girls and the dog out of the way for the day. I loved my job!

The girls’ favorite thing at our house is to play with my husband’s model cows.  He works with cows, and has three Breyers models- plastic 10 in. tall- in the Holstein, Angus and Hereford varieties. The girls absolutely love these cows.

The cows ate lunch with them, watched movies with them, and played many make-believe games of dancing, eating and playing the piano. If you have never seen a model cow play the piano, then you are definitely missing something in your life.

It is amazing to see how they interact as sisters. They get along very well. Even if the oldest does not get her way, she can be cajoled into understanding her sister’s point of view, and another option can be worked out that is acceptable to both. The youngest worships and copies her older sister, but has definite opinions of her own. Their distinct personalities are obvious even at this age.

I am not sure that I noticed all of these things in my own children at these ages. We had two boys, with our daughter in the middle. I know that we realized that our daughter was much different from our oldest son, but I am not sure that I truly appreciated the nuances of each distinct personality until they were much older.

It has now been a year since our son and his family moved out of our home. When they lived with us, our grandparent perspective was different than it is now. Seeing them every day was a weird blend of grandparent, parent, and roommates.

Now we see them at most weekly, but usually it is every few weeks. We are able to appreciate how much they have grown and matured from visit to visit.  My older granddaughter has many stories to tell me about her preschool friends (Luis had a birthday party. He is 5!) and her family (I told mama to come and see, and she saw where Sherman pooped on the floor!-sherman is their dog-). I have the perspective to notice that she is now able to tell me a story with a discernible beginning, middle and end. I can  see that her drawings have changed to include hands, feet, and different varieties of hairstyles which match the person she is drawing.

When we arrived at her new house-which is indeed red-she was very excited. The two girls went from room to room, item to item, discussing, pointing out and noting where their belongings were in the new place. The oldest wanted to know how they got the sofa there from their old place. She asked about a missing toy. The younger just wanted to watch her favorite movie-while sitting on that sofa.

A big part of being a grandparent involves providing a safe, supportive alternative place where they can play with beloved plastic cows. But home is with mama, daddy and Sherman. Poop on the floor and all.

 

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