It’s been a while, but recently Grandma Mary and I were called into duty to watch our granddaughters while their mom and dad attended a holiday gathering.
Brooke is four and Ellee is one. So both walk, only one in diapers, and there are no bottles to deal with. So this should be relatively simple. So I thought.
Grandma Mary and I do this granddaughter-sitting thing as a team. I drive us to Hartford, South Dakota, where they live, and Grandma Mary does everything else. I try to help where I can ... like, if the girls don’t eat all their supper, I am more than willing to eat whatever is left over.
While Grandma Mary handles all the normal duties such as feeding the girls, playing with them, changing Ellee’s diaper, giving both of them a bath, putting their toys away, and of course rocking them to sleep, I pitch in by trying to figure out the TV remotes.
I know what you’re thinking ... it sounds like Grandpa Rick isn’t doing his share of the work. Not so. Consider that I watched three hours of “Peppa the Pig,” “Paw Patrol” and “Toy Story,” not to mention I went to the convenience store and bought two cups of coffee and some ice cream for the girls. I think I am more than holding up my end of granddaughter-sitting team.
While I was on the coffee/ice cream run, the girls got their iPads out and were playing games on them. That started out as a good thing at first until Ellee, the one-year-old, was having some issues and she came to Grandpa Rick for help. I hadn’t figured out the TV remote yet, and now I had an iPad in my hand. Good thing four-year-old Brooke was there to help 60-plus-year-old Grandpa with the iPad.
Once the iPad issue was resolved, I found my way back to the recliner. I was able to recline the chair like a pro, but getting it back to its upright position was a different story. As you can imagine, I was having some difficulty. I kind of felt like I was sitting in a swing, and you know how you have to pump your legs to make the swing go higher? Well, I thought if I employed the swing-pumping method, I could get the recliner back to the upright position. As it turns out, the swing method was a failure. It did, however, provide Grandma Mary and the girls with a good laugh watching me trying to exit the recliner.
Finally, I kind of rolled out of the recliner to the side. Once on the floor, I got to my feet and pushed the recliner back to the upright position by stepping down on the footrest. Laugh at me all you want, but you know what I’m talking about because more than likely you’ve done the same thing.
So, to recap, I struggled with the TV remote, was an outright failure when it came to the iPad, and got my butt kicked by the recliner. From now on, when it comes to granddaughter-sitting, I’ll stick to driving and eating leftovers, two things I can handle.