Seasoned Grandma Tip #1: “The Blessed Messes”
This morning, as I headed downstairs to a new day, my eyes caught the leftovers of yesterday’s whirlwind visit by my 3-year old grandson, Brian, and his nearly 1-year old sister, Eve.
In the mix were trucks and animals and people and musical instruments that had been brought (or dragged!) from our family room into our small front room. And there was a large empty bag that holds years’ worth of hand-me-down older cousins’ trains and *train tracks that had been mischievously (at least Brian thinks so!) dumped in the center of it all.
Pops and I keep lots of toys on-hand for our grandkids’ visits. We always have, beginning what seems so very long ago with our first granddaughters, now each 16 years old… and then for the 10 grandkids who would follow.
12 in all. 12 bundles of greatest Joy known to humankind. 24 hands that play, discover, create.
I love the sounds of laughter, of play – real play – of imagination, of tinkering with little musical instruments, of flipping pages in books, of discovery of rather advanced tech toys, of dumping train tracks.
Of noise.
On this morning, with the early sun peeking into the windows of this comfy little room, I sat with a cup of coffee and wondered why I was gearing up to make this room tidy again, because it will be the same un-tidy very soon.
It wasn’t because I love tidy.
It wasn’t because of the tripping potential.
It wasn’t because I dreaded the look of an unexpected visitor and the messy room explanation to follow.
I was gearing up to tidy this room because I am a seasoned Grandma, a Grandma who knows that it’s the dumping and re-dumping and dragging and carrying and re-discovery of toys in a big bag or basket or bin that is the most fun of all.
Because each dumping is a re-discovery of sights, sounds, patterns, colors, fun, POTENTIAL!
It’s that simple.
Ah, Grandmahood. It’s the most blessed messy on earth.
*As a quick aside, I’ve laid enough train tracks over the past 16 years to make the Trans-Siberian Railway seem diminutive.