Kids and What I Learned Today

It’s the simple pleasures that kids love and they love for us to show/share with them.

Tyler is staying with Grandma and Grandpa this week while he is between summer camp and kindergarten. Now, my parents aren’t the most entertaining in the world to me, but they are to Tyler. He absolutely loves going to their house. I think they spoil him rotten, but that’s a grandparents prerogative.

I went to pick Tyler up the other day and hung around for a while.  Everyone was relaxing sitting in the sitting room, until it was as if Grandpa just realized he sat on a tack and sprung out of the chair and shouted into the back room:

“Hey buddy!” Tyler came out of the back bedroom holding a big stuffed bee and a shark “what?”.

“Do you want to show your Mom how to make an octopus fly?” Tyler went wide-eyed with excitement and skittered off into the back bedroom to find a little, pink, plastic octopus that fit into the palm of his hand.  As he came running back into the living room he said, in his stuttered, excited 5 year old way, “do you, do you want to smack it or do you want me to smack it?”

Grandpa said to Tyler “you hold it”, then Grandpa looks at me grinning from ear to ear (very similar to Tyler’s grin) “now watch this!” Tyler holds out his hand towards Grandpa “Mom watch this, watch this!” Grandpa smacks his hand from the bottom and sure enough the octopus went flying.

The two of them were laughing harder than anyone with their shared fun. Grandpa was almost in his eyes tears from laughing and Tyler was ready to do it again, but this time Grandpa would hold it.

What I learned today: there is a reason Grandparents have the prefix “Grand”: to the grand-kids, Grandparents are larger than life, more giving than anyone else and love to share the funny things we regular parents forget….. Seriously, who taught you to pull their finger.