" A Day of Bonding "

My granddaughter, Sarah is eight years old. I have watched over her since almost day one of her life. By watch over I mean babysit. But I always thought of it as watching over her.

We have bonded as a granddaughter and her grandmother should, 

years ago. She has slept over many, many nights over the years.

Since my grandson Jack was born two and a half years ago, things have been a bit different between us. I'll try to explain without going on too much. Many of you know that I have arthritis all over but my knees are the worst. I need two knee replacement surgeries.

So it was decided by all that since my grandson Jack is such a handful, it would be difficult to say the least for me to watch over him. 

I can't walk very far anymore and some days hardly at all. I can't run at all. When I get shots in my knees I am good for awhile but not very long anymore. Surgery at this point in our lives is not financially possible even with insurance. I am hoping that within the next two years that will change.

 

Lately my daughter-in-law and I have been talking. I explained that I really have an ache in my heart to bond with Jack the way that I was able to with Sarah. She said that we should just give it a try and if things didn't go well, she or my son could come and get him.

One point to keep in mind is that my son and daughter-in-law keep telling me all of the things that Jack gets into and how fast he does it. So I was feeling a bit intimidated about my physical ability to watch over him.

Now with all of that said, today was the day. Our trial day.

My daughter-in-law dropped jack off at 8:30 this morning.

I was prepared. 

I had made the house safe for him and me! I had brought out all of my husband Jake's old Tonka trucks and other miscellaneous toys.

In the six hours that I watched over Jack, I must say that it went extremely well and without incident. It was almost as though his mom and dad were talking about some other child. Not my grandson to be sure.

I served us both Linguine for lunch and the boy knows how to swirl his pasta.

He was very well behaved and I only had to remind him to say "Thank You", once or twice !

I was so surprised that he let me take pictures of him as he usually runs when I take my camera out. I told him that I really wanted to take a picture of his beautiful blue eyes.

This one we had to practice on a bit. He kept squinting. So I told him to open his eyes wide so that grandma could see his big beautiful blue eyes.

This is what he did....

My bonding moment came quite surprisingly.

The whole time that Jack was with me I kept stealing kisses. Most of them on the top of his head. There was a few minutes that he cuddled with me on the couch and I kissed him on the top of his head.

He looked and smelled so much like his daddy did when he was just a little boy that I was, if only for a moment, transported in my own mind to when my son was this age.

It was a surreal moment. For a split second I felt as if my grandson Jack was my own little boy, Frank.

That was a short moment in time that I don't think I will ever forget. Not only did I get to go back in time for a short few seconds, but I think Jack felt it too. I do believe that was our bonding moment.

My daughter-in-law came to get Jack around 3:00 p.m.

I received goodbye hugs and smiles.

He even ran around picking up all of the toys.

It was an awesome day.

We bonded.