“Perfect love sometimes does not come until the first grandchild.” -Welsh proverb
To see my girls adored by their grandparents is to witness something pure and beautiful.
The four of them—Eric’s parents, Grandma and Grandpa Gregory, and mine, Nana and Grandpa Shempy—light up when they are with Peeper and Kiwi. Peeper’s shenanigans especially inspire laughter and the kind of fun unique to little ones.
Leaning on grandparents
I am still close to my grandma, whom Peeper now calls Kitty Grandma. I got to see her rarely, though we wrote letters back and forth weekly. We stayed close when I was growing up, and she came to stay with us for months while my mom battled breast cancer.
I had just started middle school, and my entire world was shifting beneath me. I was awkward in my Goodwill clothes and my changing body, but my grandmother was always there for me. My dad worked and my mom was either ill in bed or being treated at the hospital, but Grandma greeted me every day after school, cut me an apple for a snack and listened as I recounted my day.
Each night, we practiced yoga before bed and giggled as we roared and stuck out our tongues during lion’s pose. My younger sister and I took turns sleeping next to her in our bed.
It is that sort of relationship I see my girls forming with their grandparents: one of complete acceptance and utter adoration that goes in both directions.
When Kiwi was first born, all four grandparents arrived to help. Yes, they fed Peeper lunch, changed diapers, brought me snacks and held Kiwi while I napped. But the biggest gift they gave was loving our girls unconditionally.
It’s great that you are able to have everyone together. These bonds are really important! Living in high school, our grandparents lived right next door, and my uncle 2 doors away, and so on… We had a LOT of family members on one block! I wouldn’t have traded it in for anything!
That sounds so special! We lived thousands of miles from any extended family, and I am SO grateful my girls have one set of grandparents and several aunts and uncles within easy driving distance.
What a great post! It’s important to celebrate grandparents and the relationships between them and the kids. We’re grateful that our kids adore both sets of grandparents, as well. It’s truly special to see them learn and have fun together. 🙂
Grandparents are pretty darn special!
LOVE these photos! So much love and adoration in them. My great-grandmother lived with us through my entire childhood, so I have a special place in my heart for familial love that spans generations!
Wow! I wish I could have spent more time with my great-grandmother (after whom Peeper is named). She was one heckuva lady.
Grandparents are SO wonderful. I’m grateful for mine who are still around, and my husband’s grandparents who are 90 and still going strong on their beautiful property overlooking the ocean in Washington. I hope my kids have great relationships with my parents, too!
You have some good longevity genes! That’s wonderful you still have this time with them.
i love these sweet photos! i love my grandparents as well – they’ve been such awesome people to get to know as an adult as well as a child!
What a great post. I only had 1 grandmother (obviously, I had another grandmother and 2 grandfathers, but they had passed on by the time I was born) and she lived far away and was not, shall we say, hands on. My children’s grandparents are not local, so they don’t get to see them as much as they’d like Sigh….