On A Side Note

So today or I suppose I should say yesterday as the midnight hour has come and gone; the decision was made to go see two more of our grandchildren and daughter. This started as we had need to get our eldest grandson, who has severe learning disabilities due to his mothers choosing not to take care of herself while carrying him, his annual birthday card which is a gift card for ice cream, this year Cold Stone.  Nothing like a family reunion at Super Walmart on a gray day in the pacific northwest.  Listening to a well spoken three year old boys take on life as he explained things to Grandma got me to thinking.

It is the little treats in life that make an otherwise mundane existence livable. The puppy which greets you as a child upon your return home.  Asking grandma when you first spy her in the grocery store where did she put grandpa and his mom explaining I was in her phone.  For our oldest grandson, who because of his living arrangements we have not seen since he was an infant it will be the awe when he watches the pretty girl behind the counter make his ice cream.  Next it will be when he gets his next robe as the last one grandma sent well it has become more of a tattered and torn after bath Hefner jacket that itself is way too short.  For him it is a piece of grandma.  I know the three year old will soon pass him up in both thought patterns and vocabulary but I have to wonder if maybe being able to continue to be excited over the simple things like a good game of chase with half the teachers of the school chasing you is not the better gift in this life.  I know that in my twelve year old grand sons case not having to understand and think about why mommy did not want you is not his worry though it still haunts the rest of the family but still we humor my oldest step daughter as she lays claim to being a good mom, she had had two more and we are hoping if she believes she is a good mom it will come to pass. I for one am not holding my breath.

Enough about the struggles of being a dad with a prodigal child.  I prefer to everyday go out at least once and look around my backyard and be awed by something as I would when I was a child myself.  Today it was grandma and grandson conversing and then stopping to watch the seagulls sitting on the pier watching.  When I do wake up mid morning maybe it will be listening to the patterns of the raindrops falling above my head.