SWEET GRANDCHILD OF MINE

The house is eerily quiet....

This happens each time Darrin & Charley leave after an extended visit. About 2:30 PM yesterday afternoon my son & 4-1/2 year old granddaughter left our house on the second leg of their daddy/daughter road trip. It was a wonderful visit as always but now the house feels unbelievably empty as I write this late at night. I can hear every clock ticking. The toys are put away, the dishes all done & the princess stickers removed from the coasters. We are finding colorful feathers everywhere from the multi-colored feather boa that Charley loves to play with.

It takes me maybe 15 minutes to get used to the chaos of living with a 4-1/2 year old. Schedules go out the window. The constant chatter warms my heart. Stuff is strewn all over the house. Bedspreads are wrinkled & messed up from using the mattress as a trampoline. We make up amazing games & stories, dance to the "Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot Diggety Dog" song on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse & generally embrace the enthusiasm & energy of a child.

Then after four days of this pure joy, a stillness like I've never experienced descends on my life. Even though I'll see her again in about a week & then a month after that, the bittersweet tears are just below the surface. I miss her so much that it is impossible to describe it with words.

We have the best time & always do something special. Last visit we saw "Frozen on Ice". This time we took her to her first baseball game - the Sacramento River Cats who are the Triple A farm club of our beloved San Francisco Giants. My natural frugality flies out the window where Charley is concerned. She has a cute Giants logo dress that Gaga just had to buy! I bought the four of us (me, Lou, Charley & Darrin) game tickets. It was "Princess & Pirate Night" so, naturally, Charley the special ticket that included a light up wand & tiara. Her favorite princesses (Belle, Cinderella, Merida, etc) were all there in costume & she loved meeting them up close & personal.

I promised to buy her ice cream at the game. We always bought Darrin a chocolate malt at the baseball games when he was a kid. He confided in me years later that he didn't like the games but went willingly so he could have the chocolate malt. Our Charley is a chip off the old block - I gave her a choice of the chocolate malt or a dish of ice cream. She insisted on the malt & ate every last bite of it! Although I'm pretty sure they are considerably smaller now & considerably more expensive.

We must have gone up & down the stairs 25 times to find princesses, get snacks, go to the bathroom, etc. And, of course, a 4 year old doesn't just walk up the stairs - they jump down them, run up them, hop down them & climb on the railings. Charley lasted until the 7th inning before getting bored. She stayed awake the whole game but laid with her head in Darrin's lap & her legs on mine the last couple of innings. 

She wanted to leave before the Saturday night fireworks because "it would be too loud" but then once they started (on our way out) we had to stay with hands pressed firmly over her ears. We wisely took her jammies & put them on in the car before we left the parking lot at 10:30 PM. She was out like a light five minutes later. A wonderful night for all!

We also visited Pop (my father), had lunch with Zizi (my sister), went to a fun park, ate dinners outside by our pool (at Charley's request), shopped for new clothes at Kohl's & had lunch at Taco Bell (for her favorite Baja Blast Freeze plus chips & guacamole!) Yes, she is definitely my granddaughter!

One cute, little side note. She & I (mostly her) put a puzzle together at my dad's. We did it on the hard floor in "my bedroom" since the carpet was too soft. She called for Pop to come see it. His 87 years are showing & as he slowly made his way out of the chair with his walker, Charley says to me, "I hope he doesn't fall." 

She is such a special little girl (ooops, sorry, "big" girl - I get in trouble if I call her "little"). Her numerous hugs & kisses every time you leave, even briefly, will melt any heart. Thanks for letting me share my Gaga thoughts with you. It really does make it a bit easier to handle the time away from her.