Upon Being A Grandmother

Upon Being A Grandmother

           

I am now three weeks into this, and I have discovered a new talent. I am a superb grandmother. I can capture her attention. I can feed her and burp her and calm her. I can make her quilts and go shopping. And then go shopping some more.

And take pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.

Kingsley Ella is a darling. She really is. Even by objective standards. Certainly the fact that she is my grandchild makes my opinion somewhat suspect, but you can rank this baby up against lots and lots of other babies and she’ll still place at the top. I am very proud of this.

I have big plans for Kingsley. Think of that last scene of “Auntie Mame” starring Rosalind Russell. I intend to be her Auntie Mame grandma. Oh yes, I will teach her “What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor” and “Do Your Ears Hang Low”…both of my sons loved those songs.

We will go to museums and look at art. We will go to historical houses and costume exhibits. And zoos…even though to me they still look like animal prisons I will try to overlook that because all children love animals and should see them.

I will get over my aversion to aquariums (aquaria?) and go anyway…even to Sea World if I must. And we will go to all things Disney, but I insist on it being December or January.

And road trips. My boys loved road trips and so did/do I. Nothing better…except for that stretch between Tyler and Austin, Texas, which I swear is the longest four hours in the world. Four hours doing anything else is easier. That drive is dreadful and gets worse each time…but I see many, many trips to Austin in my future.

All for Kingsley.

Over the weekend, we continued to discover that this girl loves music. We have already discovered she loves Mozart. Now we learn (because of her smitten grandpa, Kenny) that she loves Leon Redbone. This opens up a new world. Willie Nelson “Stardust” is next, for sure. I am also thinking George Gershwin. We may need to wait on my favorite, “Sing, Sing, Sing” by Benny Goodman (which everyone knows may be a perfect composition).

I am looking forward to watching “Rio Bravo” with her. How early is too early for John Wayne?

Ah, Kingsley, we have such mountains to climb!