SHE'S GROWING UP

by Dianne

I know I talk about my grandchildren a lot but I wanted to write this blog about my oldest one. It is my granddaughter that turned 11 in October. She is in 5th grade and is excited because Middle School is just around the corner. It is looking like so much fun to her. First of all, her sister will still be in grade school for one more year, so she will get to be "on her own"; second, she is getting to pick out some of her classes; third, it means she is just a little closer to those teenage years that she absolutely cannot wait for.....

I get such a laugh out of listening and talking to her. She thinks she is so grown up, but is still a little girl inside. This child still leaves notes for the Tooth Fairy, went to see Santa, and is sure the Easter Bunny will be here soon. She is pretty innocent on the meaning of so many words and says them without a blink of an eye. The hard part is that when I hear her, I have to not laugh and be serious and then ask her what a particular word means to see just how much she knows about whatever she is saying. I would like to bore you with a couple of recent stories:

My GD has a big Barbie bus and was passing it on to a younger child. We talked about getting it ready and she casually told me that she had to straighten out the dolls in the bus because they looked like a bunch of "whores". I gulped a couple of times and asked her to repeat what she had said and she did. I noticed that neither she nor her sister were paying much attention to just what had been said. I then asked her what "whores" meant. She didn't miss a beat and looked at me like, once again, I am old and don't know much. "Nana, like those people on Oprah. You know the ones where their house is a mess and people have to come in and help them clean it?" I said, "Oh, you mean hoarders?" "Yes, that's what I said...whores...hoarders...it's the same thing." Now I really had to try not to laugh ...I was dying inside.

She has also liked a boy in her class for a while. Now please understand that they don't speak to each other as they are both too shy. She told me she "broke up" with him yesterday. She had her sister (my other GD) tell him. I asked her why she broke up with him. She kept telling me that he was crazy and I would just have to be at school to see it. I kept trying to find out if he said crazy things, hopped on one foot, made funny faces...just what did he do that was so bad. She finally (with that deep "she's old" sigh) said, "Nana, he acts like he is all that and a bag of chips!"

Ok, one more story. ..... my daughter and family were leaving a rodeo event a couple of weeks ago and apparently the car next to them was so close they couldn't get in car. My SIL said something to my granddaughter so she had to get in her sister's door. When the younger GD wanted to know why she was getting in that door my GD proceeded to say, "because that dickhead parked too close to the car." After my daughter pulled herself off the ground from fainting, she asked where she heard that word and that it wasn't a nice word. Well...Daddy told her and she was just repeating it to her sister. Thank God she didn't go to school repeating it. They then came here for dinner and I was hearing the story and getting after my SIL for his mouth and my GD wanted to know what it meant. My daughter told her to ask her dad since he was the one using it. Naturally, he wouldn't tell her so I told her in the most simple way possible and then it was done. GRRR...I had to get after daddy on that one, but can you imagine hearing your child say that so innocently? I was just picturing a desk too close to hers at school and saying that to someone. Heck, she would be in the principals office and not even know why!!!

This granddaughter was my first of five grandchildren. She was the only one for almost two years. We have quite a connection and have since the minute she was born. While I went through all my dental work...she thought her jaw hurt. Her Mom even had to take her to the doctor for a sore throat and she told him about her jaw. He wanted to know when it started hurting and she asked her mom whenNana went to the dentist.

As you can tell by this blog...my grandchildren make my heart melt. I can have the absolute worst day and talk to one of them and hear a story and everything is okay. I know I am probably the typical grandmother that is boring everyone with my stories but I just wanted to share them. Come on, I will listen to any of your stories too about anyone!! For some reason I can't remember my kids being this adorable, growing up this fast or being this perfect...I wonder why that is.......