She came, she saw and she conquered
By
Gerry Niskern
To continue: A funny thing happened on the way to the Christmas tree that my great-great granddaughter was supposed to decorate. She spied the old toy box. Toys came flying out (discarding all cars and trucks) until it was almost empty.
After putting all the dolls, and a couple of dinosaurs to bed, she discovered the little kitchen stove and pots and pans. I casually mentioned that I sure could use a cup of coffee. Her eyes lite up, she recognized a fellow actor and the four-year-old included me in every scenario. I had a role to play and I better get it straight!
Later, she learned to play “Go Fish”, sort of. Knew the names of all the types of fish ,but not all the numbers but it didn’t matter because she soon had more pairs than me.
We worked puzzles and read books (her favorite thing) and then around noon she said, “I’d like to eat something now.” About the time I was saying “okay” she whipped open the frig and said, “I’ll have that orange” and said yes to my offer of veggies. “I’ll help you” she said and brought over a stool to stand on, grabbing a banana on the way. “And this too”. She directed me on how to slice them and turned down my offer of chicken salad but later as she was enjoying her spread, she casually offered me a zucchini slice and later, a banana slice.
After writing a letter to her mother she started out the door to my mailbox. When told she couldn’t go there, she handed me my phone and said “Call the mailman and tell him to come here and pick it up.”
Turns out she had never played, “Hot or Cold” while finding a hidden object. She loved it! Then when her four- hour visit was about up, she realized she hadn’t decorated my tree. Every time she picked up an ornament to hang on the tree she offered me one. I think she set a record in tree trimming time.
She is one of the most confident and self-sufficient kids I’ve seen in years.
I know you are not supposed to brag about your grandkids, but I believe they passed a law that if it is a great-great-grandkid, it’s okay.