Friday, October 26, 2007
Our county schools are out for a teacher workday today, so last night I took a very excited Princess (they had costume day at school AND a pizza party AND got to watch Charlotte's Web during the pizza party. The only thing that could have pumped her up more was if they had handed out live pigs...) out to meet Grandpa so he could take her home to be thoroughly spoiled, er, I mean, loved on for the long weekend. So far I've heard rumors of dinner at her favorite type of restaurant (Chinese buffet) and a trip to a pumpkin patch with her Aunt Susan and one of the cousins. This is heady stuff for a very "middle" child. A weekend?? With the grandparents?? BY HERSELF??? I have a feeling that I'm going to have to peel her off the ceiling with a spatula come Sunday night.
All flipness aside, as much as I miss my extended "village" in Arizona (and I miss it pretty much all the time, every day), the biggest blessing of this messy, messy, move has been to put us back in reasonable proximity to our family. (Honestly, I'd have been okay if we had landed even closer).
Unfortunately, I have very few memories of my grandparents taking interest in spending time with or "spoiling" me....and as the oldest of fourteen grandchildren, I probably got the most "attention" from them. My aunts and uncles were extremely young parents and/or too young and caught up in their own lives to be able to contribute much to helping my mom out.
Happily, my children's situation is quite the opposite. My sisters, despite their young ages when my oldest was born), have always been doting aunties. My children are blessed with not two, but three sets of involved grandparents (despite seasons of living far away) and a few sets of surrogate grands as well. AND we still have our awesome "extended" family in Arizona and North Carolina.
What a blessing for a child to be surrounded by so much love. What a blessing for us as parents to know that so many someones have our back!
Still, a note to Mom and Dad and Susan...we do have to live with her next week, so don't have too good of a time!
All flipness aside, as much as I miss my extended "village" in Arizona (and I miss it pretty much all the time, every day), the biggest blessing of this messy, messy, move has been to put us back in reasonable proximity to our family. (Honestly, I'd have been okay if we had landed even closer).
Unfortunately, I have very few memories of my grandparents taking interest in spending time with or "spoiling" me....and as the oldest of fourteen grandchildren, I probably got the most "attention" from them. My aunts and uncles were extremely young parents and/or too young and caught up in their own lives to be able to contribute much to helping my mom out.
Happily, my children's situation is quite the opposite. My sisters, despite their young ages when my oldest was born), have always been doting aunties. My children are blessed with not two, but three sets of involved grandparents (despite seasons of living far away) and a few sets of surrogate grands as well. AND we still have our awesome "extended" family in Arizona and North Carolina.
What a blessing for a child to be surrounded by so much love. What a blessing for us as parents to know that so many someones have our back!
Still, a note to Mom and Dad and Susan...we do have to live with her next week, so don't have too good of a time!
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Well...we may have had a good time...but I think she'll come home OK...at least for our portion of the weekend. Thanks for letting us take her for some pumpkin fun.
Hugs,
Susan
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