Tom’s paternal grandparents visited from Pittsburgh last weekend. The trip from Pennsylvania to Virginia is a long one and they aren’t able to visit often, so when they do it’s particularly special.
To mark the occasion, I balanced my camera on an up-turned bench and a bunch of encyclopedias and dusted off the self-timer.
And also, the kids did 12 straight hours of pool tricks, we listened to stories and caught up on news about far-away family, David stepped on a bee, and Mary Virginia spiked a fever just so Grandma and Pap could get the full Krieger family experience.
Four generations of Krieger men.
Grandma and Pap’s visit gave me the opportunity to explain the “great-grandfather” relationship to my almost-five-year old. It’s a challenge, you can’t just say, “he’s Daddy’s grandpa” because David doesn’t know the word grandpa (his grandfathers go by “Pops” and “Gramps”). So instead, I say — Pap is Daddy’s pops. And he’s Pops’s daddy. It makes no sense and sort of sounds like a tongue-twister.
It doesn’t make sense because little kids don’t even fully understand the grandparent relationship. I’ve told my kids that Grammy is my mom, but they have trouble conceptualizing me as a kid, or that the world was turning before they entered it. And it gets particularly confusing when you throw in that your cousins share one set of grandparents, but not the other. Actually. Let’s get back to basics. When pressed, can your kid really explain what a mother is?
So I say, “Pops is Daddy’s daddy, and Pap is Pops’s daddy.” And when David just wrinkles his nose, I ruffle his hair and say, “Sorry bud, that’s the best I can do. Maybe you should ask someone who doesn’t rely on autocorrect to text.”
Add a few divorces because of this broken world and whew-wee it is crazy! I don’t think my 2 year old even knows that my parents know each other outside of visiting at our house, haha!
I struggle so much with when my kiddos get sick, are you as roll with it as you seem on the blog, or does it throw you too? If you are so roll with it, how have you gotten there? I get so upset about figuring out how to deal with sick kids long with well kids, and also about upset plans that have to get canceled or changed. Just looking for advice! 😉
lynsie. i have clearly misrepresented myself. i have no chill when it comes to the kids getting sick. thomas actually got sick before mary virginia, and just before that david had a scary breathing episode. i actually cancelled the whole weekend (the part we hosted) but steve and lindsay insisted they didn’t mind being around mary with a fever. THEY are the chill ones we need to learn from!!
when my kids are sick, tom says i go to a very very dark place. i even sort of start to panic if one of them skips a nap (ear infection?) or seems not hungry, too tired, etc. it’s awful.
i also learned about myself that when they’re sick that i can’t see out of it. so when thomas was sick on wednesday, i could not fathom doing anything on sunday.
like you, i’m working on it. and the way i deal with non-sick kids when i have sick kids is to turn on the tv. :-/ it’s not a good method, but it’s all about survival!!!
Thanks for your honesty! We were out and about today and got home and G had a fever, I just almost shut down. I need to learn from Lindsey!!! I hate to say it, but I would have been a wreck knowing my kids were playing with someone that had been feverish that week. I also find myself being super mean, as if it is that kids fault their body is responding to germs that got inside.