But They Look So Cute in Those Dresses

Megan and Hunter at Hat Rock Park, July 2012

I miss my grandchildren.  Last weekend I called to chat with them and to find out if they received the box I sent them.  Hunter’s first question was “When are you coming, Nana?”   This year they will both be in school full-time and that makes it harder to find a good time to visit.  My schedule is wide open, but theirs isn’t.  I’m missing the care-free, unscheduled days of summer already!

I over compensate for not visiting them by shopping for them.  I love buying their frilly dresses and sparkly shoes.  When they were visiting in July we shopped for school shoes.  When I took them home my daughter commented that there was something wrong when her five year old had more shoes than she did.  That comment is not quite the truth.  My daughter also inherited the shoe shopping gene and has her own extensive collection of footwear.

When the first granddaughter was born, I promised my daughter that I wouldn’t be the grandmother who showered the grandchild with tacky gifts.  I opened a 525 account to save for college and I make small monthly contributions.  That, I told my daughter, was how I was going to spend money on the grandchild.

Over the years my resolve has weakened.  I still contribute to the 525 accounts, but I also enjoy shopping for their school clothes, and buying books, and ….well, buying just about anything that I think they will like. 

The grandchildren are responsible for putting their clean laundry away.  The laundry room is on the first floor and their bedrooms on the second.  They each have a small laundry basket that they use to carry the clean, folded laundry upstairs.  Last weekend Hunter was coming down the stairs with her empty basket when her mother told her that there was another load of laundry that needed to go to her room.  Hunter sighed and said “Again?  Tell Nana to stop buying us clothes!”

SIGH!  Out of the mouths of babes…