Living next door to three of my precious grandchildren is a wonderful thing. I love that they bop in and out daily, help themselves to my cupboard, refrigerator and sometimes even my closet (usually when they need a costume item). I just didn’t realize early on I would also become the homework helper.
The second grader I have no problem helping. For the tenth grader I’m limited to a couple of topics and neither of them is math. With the nineth grader my limiting factor is how quickly I become motion sick.
My Bailey is beautiful, smart and a barrel of laughs. But she has a body that must be in motion. I don’t mean a little bit of motion, I mean a lot of motion. There’s no sitting down with her on the other side of the table.
This is how it usually works. She sits on the couch, I sit in my chair and we begin. By question number two she is sitting on the floor. By question number four she is laying on the floor. After that she’s under the chair, over the couch, wrapped around a pillow, feet in the air, feet in my face, feet in some painful looking contortion behind her back or around her neck. She’s up, she’s down. She’s moving to the kitchen and back. She’s stretching. She’s dancing. She’s doing some kind of twitching that I think has to do with unheard rap music.
At the same time, believe it or not, she is actually concentrating, listening and answering questions. Her constant gyrations drive her grandpa crazy. This is the child that he swears jumps rope or something when on the back of the motorcycle with him. He never has to worry that she has fallen off. Believe me, he can tell she’s back there.
I’ve learned to ignore the body in motion as long as I’m sure the mind is engaged. The only time I came really close to losing it was when she had 100 questions on a piece of paper and needed me to quiz her until she had every answer correct. (She is pretty much a 4.0 student.) By the time we’d gone over the questions at least twenty times, she had covered every inch of my living room, stopped just short of straddling the exposed beams holding up the ceiling, and actually managed to do a back walkover in front of me while quoting answers flawlessly!
She is energy times fifty. She can do things with her body that should be impossible. She can wear out your last nerve faster than you can say STOP! But she can also take that ever gyrating body and worm her way into your heart faster and deeper than you would believe possible.
I’m glad God didn’t give me cookie cutter grandchildren. I’m thankful He made each one unique. I love my graceful, quiet Beth. I adore my creative, way-too-smart- for-her-own-good Grace, I treasure my sweet, little-going-on-big Brinkley. I have a dream-it-and-it-will-happen Ashley, a Chase who’s mouth and brain are constantly in high gear and a Sean who is the precious recreation of his daddy as a toddler.
And I have my Bailey – who drives me crazy, tests my patience, makes me constantly motion sick and never bores me. I know the minute she’s not in the room and I miss her if a day goes by without seeing her. I hope she never outgrows her contortionist tendencies. And I hope she someday has a child just like her! That will be poetic justice.
For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 1 Timothy 4:4
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