Longing, loving, lonely,left out, lovely, little Lorelai

Warning; This post is probably longer than most of my other long posts. I think it's worth it anyway, but I won't feel TOO bad if you don't stay with me.

Sorry to report, but my sweet little Lorelai is sad. Lisa wrote a post about it yesterday. You can read about it HERE.
Ever since Alexandra was old enough she and I have enjoyed what we call, "Grandmother, Grandaughter, Day". I think the name is pretty self explanatory.

But just in case I will elaborate.

This day traditionally consists of, first, me driving over to Donald and Lisa's house, where of course I am greeted by two happy little girls, and as of the last 14 months one sweet moment of snuggling with baby Elisabeth.

After greetings for all, Alexandra and I walk out to my van, where I strap her into my van's integrated child seat (the legalities must be observed after all) and we head off for a day full of lunch out, (usually McDonalds, yes it is a small sacrifice.) and then off to run errands with grandma. For some reason, as far as Alexandra is concerned, a "Grandma day out" doesn't count unless actual time is spent at "Grandma's HOUSE".

Little Lorelai watched Lex and I leave for these G.G.Days, for 3 years. Amazingly she never complained much. It meant time for her to have mama all to herself.Not to mention the fact that I had informed her that as soon as she turned three she would be eligible for . . . . .

Grandmother, Grandaughter days of her OWN!

I am sad to admit that I have not kept up with these special days as well as I should.

Courtney and I did take Lori out for her third birthday. We made sure that she had a very nice time. But since then I think I have only taken her out a few other times. It has just now occurred to me that I better step it up though, in a couple short years she will be in school and these special days will be much harder to orchestrate.

Back to the point of this post.

If you read Lisa's post you know that poor little Lorelai was suffering great sadness from being little, uninjured, unnoticed, practically Red Headed Stepchild status, second youngest, Lorelai. Keep in mind that the hordes of people who have showered Alexandra with treats, gifts, flowers, and most importantly ATTENTION, are good, concerned, loving people, who have really lifted Lex's spirits. (Donald and Lisa's too) But being only four, this little sister can only take so much.

In spite of Lisa's ingenious idea of helping Lorelai flush her problems away, it didn't look good for day 3 of non-stop visitors and well wishes all meant for big sister.

I did the only thing I could think to do.

Plan a quick and spontaneous G.G. day out with my second youngest, little love.

I called and talked to Lisa first. Since I had already left a comment on her post she had a pretty good idea of what I was calling for. For Lorelai, however it came as a complete surprise. (How fun for me.) She accepted my invitation with great excitement. (Even more fun for me.)

We agreed that I would be there to pick her up around 12. I arrived pretty much on time.

One of the great things about having grandchildren is, if you are ever having a down day and need love and encouragement, you simply drive over and walk in their front door. You are instantly the most popular person in the entire house.

Believe me, it's one of the best feelings in the whole world.

Well, I went in and got my ego stroked. Elisabeth laughed and laughed as I talked to her and gave her lots of love. Alexandra was happy to see me and was so gracious about Lorelai having her special day. Lorelai was so excited that I should really find my thesaurus and look up a better, more fitting word for her reaction, than just excited.

Oh well, it will have to do.

We agreed that our first stop needed to be lunch. McDonald's just happens to have "My Little Pony" happy meals right now. Lori was aware of that, because a little girl in her Pre-school class had just bought one for Show and Tell, the day before.

Of course we headed to Mickey D's. I even took us to the one a little further away because it has an INDOOR play area. This did not escape her notice either. She told me how much she loved this particular McDonald's. Just to get a little credit here, I have to let on that I actually dread this McD's. It is almost as frantic and noisy as Chuck E Cheese.

But only the best for my little grandaughter.

She got a chicken nugget Happy Meal and I got the nuggets too. In a Big Kid Meal. This way we ended up with TWO Pony's. Now I told Lorelai that she could have both pony's or she could give one to Alexandra. I really wouldn't have minded at all if she decided to keep both of them. (Keeping in mind that Christmas had definitely come early for big sister.)

That sweet little girl didn't even need a beat to think about it.

I want to give one to Sissie was her immediate answer. See what a darling little love she is? Well we ate our lunch. Lorelai had been more than honest when she had told me how hungry she was. She ate up those nuggets in no time flat, and all of her fries, and then even some of mine.
I love seeing children eating well. (Yes I do realize the word "well" is relative here, seeing as how it was Chicken Nuggets and French Fries she was devouring.)

After eating, as every child knows, it was Play Time! She put her shoes in the shoe holder. I had actually offered to hold on to them for her but she wanted the FULL experience. I let her play as long as she wanted. She was practically the only girl in the whole play room. I wasn't sure how she would feel, being in the minority and all. But it seemed to make no difference to her.

She was off like a shot.

After maybe half an hour she came and informed me that she was ready to go. So we went.
Target was next on the agenda. There were some things I needed to pick up for my mom. I also figured that we could find her a treat or two there(that would be for Lori, not my mom). We had such a good time. She was especially interested in looking at all the "Christmas Stuff".

So we did.

Of special interest were all of the Christmas candies. The candy canes were the most popular with her. The classic red and white ones were OK, but she had eyes for the more colorful ones. She actually told me that she liked the "Character Ones".

"Character" ones?

Where does a four year old learn about terms like that?

I wouldn't have been surprised if she had also differentiated them as the "Licensed, Character, Ones". The multi colored "Disney Princess" candy canes were judged to be the most desirable. There were three each of the blue ones, the red ones, the green ones, and much to her delight, yellow ones.

(Warning: Bragging Grandma Ahead!)

She saw that her chosen canes had stripes around each one. For some reason the yellow ones didn't seem to have stripes. That was a slight concern for her since yellow is her favorite color. And then she really shocked me by announcing that the pictures of each Princess appeared to be on the plastic wrapper instead of on the cane itself.

She is only FOUR!

Barely four, for that matter. And here she is analyzing the make up of these chosen candy canes. Now I do realize that it has been 17 years since I have owned a four year old of my own, but that, in my opinion, was pretty darned impressive. If not, please don't burst my bubble. Every grandma should be allowed bragging rights after all.

Well, I told her what a smarty pants she was.

She didn't like that. She informed me that she didn't personally care for the term "Smarty Pants". I realized it wasn't the Smarty as much as the Pants that offended her. I asked her opinion on "Smarty Shoes". Bingo, we had a winner. Now I just have to remember to always use Smarty Shoes instead of the inferior Smarty Pants.

I didn't forget of course to pick up the things that my mom wanted me to get for her. On that list was a birthday card for my brother Mike and his son, my nephew Andy. I like getting cards for my mom. She usually gets the cards that you would expect a 72 year old woman to get.

Nice but BORING.

I on the other hand prefer a funny card over one that has a long sugary poem about "My Son". Or "My Grandson".
She feels that if the card companies go to all the effort to put the name right there on the card, then those are the ones to get. I don't think I have ever gotten a card from her that didn't work the word "Daughter" into it in some way. (Janice, Please don't show this post to mom.)

I had decided that since it was my choice, I would pick out a card that I knew my brother and nephew would really enjoy.

I have sadly come to the conclusion that store bought cards these days, may have several "funny" cards, I just can't believe how so many of them focus on Beer, or other forms of drinking and riotous partying. Fine for some people but we are Mormons! The rest of the funny cards are mostly smutty! I couldn't believe how many of them referred to that part of a man's body that makes him a man. And then of course all the ones with scantily clad beautiful women. I don't get it. There is so much more to humor than seventh grade type smut.

Ooops. Off my topic.

Well this was the only time in our whole day out where Lori got a little restless. I couldn't blame her of course. I just couldn't believe how long it took to find a clever card appropriate for a very nice sixteen year old boy and my beloved, soon to turn forty year old brother. I finally found them but geez what an ordeal.

Next on the agenda was going to Tri-City Retirement Home to visit Great Grandma Brinkerhoff, and give her the things I bought for her.

We got up to her room, and SURPRISE she was not there. Weird, really weird. My mom is always in her room when ever I pop in. Lorelai was a little confused as well. I had noticed a game of Bingo being played in the game room downstairs that we had walked past. It hadn't even occurred to me to look for her in there. She isn't in the best shape right now so she usually just stays in her room.

There was nothing left, but to go on a search for Grandma B.

Lorelai was promised a visit and she was going to get one. We went back downstairs. Lorelai pushed all the elevator buttons of course. We found her. She was in the game room.

Bingo had just ended.

Mom was thrilled to have Lorelai there. There's nothing like showing off a cute little great grandaughter to all of your friends who then wish that their great grandaghters were there so they could show them off too. Score one for Susan. Score one for my MOM.

Well after the Great Grandma and various other old people visiting, it was time to go. Lori had had a very full day. She was happy. She was excited. She was satisfied, and last but not least, she was tired. She fell asleep on the way home.

There were visitors there when we arrived but I don't think she really even noticed. She couldn't wait to give Alexandra the purple My Little Pony. She also was happy to show off her box of Disney Princess candy canes, oh yeah, and her Hello Kitty stickers that she had found in Target's dollar section. Lex had a bucket of little foam gingerbread men that she must have recently received. She handed one to Lorelai.

Since they had both been Princess for the day, I think it was very easy for them to meet on equal terms and feel nothing but love for each other.
I had a little more snuggle time with my precious little Elisabeth. She laughed so wonderfully for me.

I can't imagine anyone ever coming up with a better thing than being a grandparent. I think it is the one unbroken thing that will fortunately never ever have some fool trying to fix it.
After all how many perfect things are left in this world anymore?