They are 14 today

And I know precisely where the time went

Above we see six-year old twins pulling each other’s chain as we visit Hartford’s waterfront. The girl child is pretending that she will kiss the boy child, and he is reacting as any good brother would. He is recoiling in horror.

These two came crashing into the world, bringing with them a truckload of giggles and impressive burps and non sequiturs that strangely make sense to me.

What grandchildren usually don’t know is that grandparents are mostly feeling their way in their role. I had a Gold Standard Grandmother, and felt the pressure to be that kind of wonderful granny. The one thing I wanted to make sure to do was share stories, as my own Gold Standard Grandmother rarely did. I don’t know if she thought her life wasn’t interesting or if there were things she didn’t want to talk about, so the few stories she told became like diamonds to me.

With my own grandchildren, there was a time when they would ask me for stories from when I was 8, or 15, or 40. I sometimes think I have told them all my stories and then I remember another one.

Here they are, so excited about one of my stories that they fainted. Not really. They’re sleeping.

I believe here is where we capture the moment the boy taught the girl how to break free of her crib.

In the meantime, I tell them stories about themselves from when they were 4, or 8, or 14. At this age, though, I listen more than I talk, which means I listen to discussions about home work and sports and friends.

Vacation!

These look like fake smiles, don’t they?

Grandmothers tend to move more deliberately. The pressure is off. We now know that not every miscue portends disaster, and that’s powerful tool to have. We have both time and the license to get on the floor and play a board game, which we may have rarely done as mothers. Now, we are more devoted to sprinkling glitter in the grandkids’ paths.

Their father, my son, cannot get over his babies being 14, but I have done this before. Where did the time go? It went into a million stories that they will one day tell their own family.

“Back when I was 14, Granny bought me a goofy birthday hat and told me I had to wear it when we went to the mall.”

“Back when we were 5, we used to play hot lava in Granny’s kitchen.”

“Back when I was 8.” Or 15 or 40. What a lovely long story we’ve built.