One of the big draws for having grandkids present in my daily life is the delight of watching them experience new things. The odds are in your favor the younger they are. I remember the day I told little Parker that he had pockets in his trousers. He had found a particularly wonderful rock and wanted to keep it safe to show to his mom. “Stick it in your pocket, ” I told him.
“What’s a pocket, Gummy?”
I showed him where his pockets were on the sides of his cotton jeans.
The excitement that sprung from his eyes was so spectacular it made me giggle and then pick him up and smash him against my heart. His tender fleshed chubby little fingers squeezed the pebble down into the opening as his chest filled with pride. He turned his azure eyes up toward mine for approval. I nodded that knowing nod, as if to say, “Now you know.”
Driving to Pittsburgh with our Merrill grandkids the girls started singing a song they were learning in Primary. They have divine little voices. I started singing along with them and instinctively broke into harmony in the chorus. It threw them off and they jumped to join me, confused about what I was singing. We stopped and I asked them if they knew what harmony was. That’s when I got to explain how two musical notes can live side by side and create a certain sound which will evoke certain feelings. I told them to sing the melody strongly together, and I would whisper-sing the harmony so they could hear it. They were both thrilled, and we repeated and repeated, my part getting louder as they built confidence in theirs. Something from way deep in my memory banks told me there was once that pivotal moment in my own young life. We sang that song half-way across America. Then, just last month, Tess, Beth and I sang it in our Sacrament Meeting at church. With harmony. I feel honored to have been able to be there in that pivotal moment when they both discovered how to make harmony.
Riding a bike for the first time, doing a cartwheel, playing your first song on the ukulele, frosting your first gingerbread man… I have been there for many blessed moments of discovery.
As our Littles get bigger, I know those fresh moments will soon dissipate. Of course there will be all the big new things: driving a car, graduating, moving away from home, falling in love or starting a new job. But these little sweet nothings are so charming I am feeling an anticipatory grief at the impending loss of them.
Then again, there’s always something new to discover regardless of age, so maybe I should focus on that. For instance, Friday after school I taught Tessa about the magical combination of Nutella and Ruffles potato chips. She was pretty stoked about it. Dave came home and saw her crunching away at her chocolate covered chip. “Try it!” Tess encouraged Gumpa.
And so he did. Watching him munch and crunch, swallow, analyze then repeat was such a delight to my old lady eyes. “Mmmm,” he said as he plunged his Ruffles potato chip into the jar of Nutella.
It’s so rare and so sweet when you get to teach an old dog new tricks.
We’ve already gone through a whole bag of chips and two jars of Nutella.
