I know it's supposed to happen. It's just so much faster than I could've predicted.
Plans to move north at some point began to percolate on the back burners of our minds the moment we met our granddaughter - on the day of her birth in San Francisco in 2009.
It took her mama, our daughter, some time to be ready for us to move, so it was just over three and a half years ago that we transplanted ourselves. Our rootlets are deepening in the fertile soil by the beautiful Bay. Instead of arriving the day before her celebration, tired from the drive from Los Angeles, we're now already here and know where to go to get balloons, ice-cream, and last minute party items very close to home.
Generally, the celebrations of her birth have been fairly low-key. This ninth birthday / slumber party / pool party also was low-key. Home made pizza, (her dad), home made cake, (her mom) and clean-up and set-up done by all of us, including her dad's new wife.
This time, our younger daughter "Auntie Sid" decided to forego the pool & slumber party portions of the weekend and just come up for the Sunday afternoon and evening family gathering at our (relatively) new (for us) home. It makes a lot of sense. If you're not a nine-year-old and in the pool, you're going to be ignored, for the most part, by the Birthday Girl.
We're so glad of our daughter's commitment to drive the four hours from San Luis Obispo to be a presence in her young niece's life, AND so we can all be together. There's so much joy in simply hanging out together.
Here's what I loved hearing at the dinner table Sunday after the topic of conversation turned to therapy:
D: (the granddaughter): What's therapy? Why would someone want to go to a therapist?
AS: (Auntie Sid): A therapist is someone who can help us be with big feelings. You know the Leggo Movie where Sparkle Pony is always so nice but keeps stuffing all her feelings down deep until she just explodes?
D: Oh, yah... and the screen is just full of her exploded sparkly pieces - like confetti!
AS: That's right! A therapist can help us get some of those feelings out before they get so big that they hurt us or others and so they don't make us go crazy... or explode.
D: Oh.
What's lovely to me about this conversation - apart from the content - is that at nine, the Grandie is at that lovely stage of life called latency during which she is mastering many skills - from bike and horseback riding to Pogo-Stick jumping to making friendship bracelets to cursive to dipping her toe into the adult conversation - just as much as she wants to.
When the leftover chocolate cake, frosting and berries were finished, and the tissue paper recycled, D retired to the den to comb the mane and tail of one of her new birthday gifts from her parents - an eighteen-inch-tall black and white horse she'd named Eve. D thought Eve looked and felt much better without her saddle on. Too restrictive, she announced.
The long and busy weekend showed in her eyes and posture. She'd melted into the sofa. Farewell hugs and high-fives were shared and D and her mama were off to prepare for Monday back at school for the last week of the semester.
She and I will have a good long summer to practice the above skills and perhaps learn new ones... before the hormones hit for the next stage of life. For that stage, saddles and seat belts may be required.
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