Grandma's Hugs and Kisses

"Where are we going," my younger son always asked me the typical question before leaving the house. My reply for this time was, "We're going to Grandma's house." I could see Ryan beaming his smile when he heard my comment. Then, Dylan would say, "Which Grandma?" He has three Grandmas! "Grandma Cathy, the ones with Zack," I answered.

"Oh boy, I need to bring my toys to her house!" They hurriedly gathered their new toys to show off to Grandma.

So, we left for a short afternoon to visit Grandma Cathy. While we were on the road, Ryan said, "Grandma lives far away." It was interesting to see from the child's perspectives though we only lived less than forty minutes. As soon we arrived to her home, they chased up to her front door from the driveway, wanting to be the first person to ring her doorbell. The fun part of watching them was peeking through the beveled glass side window until she greeted us at the front door.

The first and foremost important thing was exchanging lots of hugs and kisses. It had been a long while we last saw each other. Not only getting hugs and kisses from Cathy, we did give Zack, the dog, our hugs because he was so anxious to see us. While exchanging our hugs and kisses, the boys were too anxious to share their update news: from stuffed animals to Hot Wheels Magazine even we were only at the front entry. We got ourselves moved to another room to catch our news up.

There were times we, as adults, were anxious to share each other news up, but knowing the boys wanted to shared the news with her first. Letting the kids shared their exciting news to one of their important people in the family, Grandma Cathy, had always made me feel good.

As soon as the excitement settled it down, Cathy, my wonderful mother in law, and I had a little opportunity to catch our news up. The chance between us was slimmed due to that I have two youngsters. It was a really decent feeling to catch each other news up because I knew we had missed each other so much. Literally speaking of missing her so much, I could tell you that she is one of the few people I admired. She does indicate her strong-willed thoughts, yet she does have soft heart to others.

I also missed her senses of humors when we didn't see each other for a while. That's how Dylan also felt about his Grandma. He later told me that he enjoyed visiting her because " Grandma makes me happy. Laughing is in my heart." I could not disagree with Dylan. She does have a good humor along with her mischievous thoughts. That's why I loved her so much because she and I are alike: enjoyed being mischievous on the part of our "inner" personality.

Sharing the laughter was a great way of spending each other over our kids' lunch meal: the macaroni. While we were eating our meal, we exchanged the conversation about our coloring eyes. Ryan approached to his Grandma's eyes closely carefully, " You have green and brown eyes." He was right despite of the looking from the distance. Truthfully, it was a really good feeling to watch them having on-going conversations over the table.

Out of blue after we had a lunch, Dylan announced he missed his Aunt Ginger and Cousin Danae. Calling to Aunt Ginger was another thing we did at Grandma Cathy's. They spoke over the phone for a few minutes. Ryan did have the opportunity to speak with her over the phone. This was a good practice for the boys to practice using the phone. (Of course, we will get a new wireless phone soon. Be aware, for the family who read my blog, you soon will get a call from the boys.)

Another thing we shared our moment was watching a Disney's movie, " Snow Buddies." Zack even joined with us. I was definitely surprised that Zack was not interested in listening or watching the talking dogs movie. Instead, he would rather to sit and relax next to us. While he was laying next to us, he was sleeping on the top of one of his stuffed animals. His other stuffed animals, the huskies dog was somewhere near us because he knew Dylan had his smaller huskies stuffed animals with him.

Shortly after the movie, Grandma Cathy wanted to get a kiss from the boys due to not seeing each other for a while. Give me a kiss!" when Grandma Cathy requested. Not only getting the kisses from each other, they also played hugging and teasing each other. The smiles in them melt my heart.

So typically I thought it was time for us to go home. The boys wanted something more to give back in a return. They drew pictures and gave pictures to her. Dylan drew pictures of the family, including Zack. Grandma asked him, "What happened to our stomach?" because he was drawing a stick body while a picture of Zack had a stomach. She ended up teaching him how to draw a simple picture of human such as making polka pants! Ryan drew his colorful pictures, a picture of him and his name. That was a good free gift to her before we headed for home.

Shortly before we walked out of the door, Grandma Cathy insisted to get, "Give me one more Kiss!" Dylan did without an obligation. Ryan said to her sharply, "I already did!" I burst into laughter. Still, she wanted to get ONE MORE kiss from him. The last reply was from him, "Alright (sighing exasperatedly), I will kiss you." They did! Of course, she and I exchanged our hugs and kisses before we headed for home.But, even as I'm lamenting the time that is gone, I am beginning to realize how fortunately we had a chance to spend each other during our Spring Break. I honesty can say that we do look forward to the time with her and the family.