Isn't it something the way God planned life? He knew we had to start out as a baby. At what other age would our parents fall in love with us? Certainly not during our terrible twos or teens. Maybe at age 10, which is the age at which a "woman" best knows herself and is her most charming. By the time we reach the terrible twos our parents have fallen in love with us, putting up with the most atrocious behavior which makes them wonder why they wanted a child in the first place. But it's too late to give up by then. They remember the lovely baby who stole their love and who will now pull their heart-strings this way and that and use up their lives and livelihood until they reap the blessings in their children's children, and the circle of life starts all over again.
It amazes me how our granddaughter has such a well-developed character and personality by now. She has a delightful sense of humor and I never tire of playing with her and seeing her humor surface unexpectedly. She seems to know when she's being teased and gives me that know-it-all look that let's me know she's on to the game. She's having so much more fun since she started walking. Once she passed the first 30 steps and toddled off into the next room, her personality changed dramatically. She went from a somewhat whiney and clingy baby to running off laughing, leaving us behind, as if to say, "I'm a big girl now." Walking has given her a new-found confidence and happiness.
She's obsessed with balls. "Ball" was one of her most intelligible words out of her constant jabbering...and she loves to play with plastic balls of all sizes. She's also learned to scream. I was trying to teach her Mule Skinner Blues(a bluegrass song I used to sing from our band's repetoire), because I thought she already knew the yodeling part, and she enjoyed screaming it along with me. She tries to imitate my exaggerated sneezes, which throw her into giggles because I also lift my foot up when I do it; so she lifts up her foot and pretends to sneeze but so far all that comes out is a modified scream. She also knows bow-wow, moo, meow, da-da, papa (grandpa), quack, quack, but has forgotten how to say her name , though she said it months ago. Sometimes an almost-recognizable words slips through a sentence that sounds right, but isn't understandable. Her mother is teaching her sign language. That's the big rage now-a-days. She signs "more," "please," "drink," but also points and says, "huh," when signing doesn't work. It's a rather peculiar concept as I'm not sure what it accomplishes over the traditional way of teaching language. Time will tell, I s'pose.
This dear little granddaughter is a hugger. She reaches up to her parents and two sets of grandparents and snuggles cheek-to-cheek with her arms wrapped tightly around our neck. She's been doing this for months already. She'll hug anyone she's familiar with. Sometimes it seems to be a way for her to overcome her first shyness towards others. She'd rather hug than make eye contact. But I also think it's because she enjoys the feeling of love.
I generally go once a week to our daughter to help her out in whatever way I can and just to spend time together.. She's a busy farmer's wife and is struggling with quite a lot of normal pregnancy fatigue. While I'm there she works at getting caught up on accounting for the farm or goes grocery shopping. I often help with laundry, ironing, and washing dishes. This past Wednesday she took a two-hour nap while I played with my granddaughter and tried to get her down for a nap, to which she finally gave in just before Mama woke up. Though I'm often worn out by the end of the day, I can't think of a greater blessing than being a working mother and grandmother for a day.
Just as God gives us babies to fall in love with before we must walk them through all the difficult experiences of adolescence and the teen years, He gives us Spring and Fall so we don't fall out of love with the earth during summer and winter. I put out birdfeeders and birdbaths which provide us with a lot of entertainment. No need to turn on the TV or DVD. The birds, squirrels, and rabbits, are a moving picture of real life, a colorful diorama of how life works in its awesomeness and terribleness. We found a grackle floating in our little pool. I wonder if it was the one that was eager to take a bath in the pool and drowned himself in the process? Do his parents miss him? They're always so patient with the young who constantly follow them and beg loudly to be fed. The albino (white) squirrel that frequented our yard and was so entertaining the last couple years was found dead in the neighborhood a few weeks ago. I miss him. It's suspicious, or maybe just coincidental, that he showed up dead just a couple weeks after an amateur photographer published its picture in our local paper.
Thinking of living and being brings to mind Acts 17:28:
"for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'for we are also His offspring.' " (NKJV)He created the earth and everything in, and on, it for our benefit and enjoyment. How we care for ourselves, our homes, our earth, and how we relate to others around us is an outward expression of gratitude to our creator, God. Our earthly family is preparation for our heavenly family. We become light to those around us, especially our children and grandchildren, when we live in the light of our Creator as He teaches us in His word. That is how we pass on the lightness of being from generation to generation.
