A Day with T

Today we've had the privilege of taking care of our great-grandson Tristan. He is actually spending the night with us.

Tristan's mom, Desiree, was going with our daughter and our grandson Emerson to the DMV so that both of them could get their driver's permits. So our daughter asked if we'd keep Tristan. Of course we said "Yes!"

Keeping him for a little while turned into keeping him for overnight. It is the first time we've had him all to ourselves, so this felt like foreign territory, but we were confident we could master the situation.

We haven't changed a diaper in probably 16 years. It has also been a long time since we've had a conversation with a little human (without his mom to interpret) who doesn't quite speak our language. He actually speaks a lot, figuring out what exactly he is saying is sometimes a little complicated. One thing he does say over and over is "Gramma Carol, I love you" and he also does the same for his grandpa.

He absolutely loves his toy cars. Loves driving them off the coffee table and onto the floor . . . he gets this from Great Grandpa Fun, and from our son, Shawn, his grandpa. We hardly know Tristan's dad so we don't know if the attraction to cars is also on that side of the family. He loves books. He was counting his toes with me tonight. Then I asked him if he could sing. He said "No," which is a favorite word. So I started singing, "Jesus loves me, this I know," and very quickly he was mimicking the words in a sing-song fashion. I can't carry a tune in a bucket so I shouldn't be the one teaching him to sing. But what fun we have had today with this little, newest member of our family (he was 2 on February 16).

On Father's Day Sunday (June 21) Tristan and his mommy will leave with us for a week at family camp on Catalina Island. It is a week packed with potential. Our granddaughter needs lots of encouragement and guidance. Of our three grandkids she's had the toughest road to walk because her parents not only separated when she was very little, they also always chose to have war rather than peace. Now she has one of her own. Kids seem to follow in their parents steps or go exactly opposite of them. So our greatest desire is that the week with Desiree and Tristan will be a wonderful encouraging time for all of us. And if this day and evening with Tristan is a forshadowing of what we can anticipate, then I think it is going to be a fabulous week.

Well, it's taken me almost an hour to get Blip to acknowledge my photo tonight, so I'm hoping it will quickly upload the entire journal. Thank YOU so much to EVERYONE who has commented the past several days. Graduation season is always punctuated with lots of emotion and your words have just added to the joy of this season.

Good night as we enter another weekend.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol