Snuggle time at Grandma's

As a grandmother, there is no finer moment than when a sleepy grandchild is snuggled in your arms, drowsy and quiet, who finally falls asleep, and you see the cares of the world drop away as they fall deeper and deeper into sleep. When they are babies, and are all warm and snuggly, sweet smelling of baby powder and warm milk, it is nothing short of heaven. But then they grow, and those times get fewer and farther between.

My M & M's are almost 4 and just turned 5. The incredible energy that those little bodies have in them is breath-taking, literally, when one wants you to play with them in the bed room, and the other wants you downstairs! Try to make that work without an aerobic stairstep workout--it is really a workout! So the "sleepy snuggle time" at Grandma's hasn't happened much lately.

Last night, they came over for a visit. We had our favorite Chinese take out (mom states that it was the third time in as many days, but they still went for it). After dinner, the evening's activities were planned. It was "everybody downstairs" for a play session with building materials. It worked out rather well. Lincoln Logs and a trip down memory lane for little boy M and grandma, and the new Magnetix (now that they are old enough) for little girl M and mom. And peace rather reigned for about 20 minutes, because little girl M was content to build, and could do it. Her usualy mode up to this time has been to get frustrated easily, and then just break whatever was being built apart. (They called her M the destroyer when she was a little toddler, because she always destroyed the brother's buildings, and with great delight as she did it! Luckily, he is patient with her, most of the time.)

Then it was snuggle time. Grandma had just completed new snuggle blankets for them both, with new themes. Gone are Dora the Explorer, and now we are in love with the princesses. Banished to the back of the closet is Lightning McQueen, and one of the new superhero characters is now #1. So Spiderman and Cinderella will cuddle them for a while!

Little Girl M dragged out the Wizard of Oz movie for us to watch while under our snuggle blankets. She lasted until Dorothy "followed the yellow brick road" then her eyelids drooped and she fell into that sweet sleep of a young child. Little Boy M lasted through the entire movie, asking "why" at every turn of events. This is hard to explain why they did that back in 1939 when they made the movie. It was probably the first time I watched absolutely every moment of the movie, and had to rationalize every action, so now I know the movie very well. I even know the lines, like "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!" He laughed when I did the Wicked Witch of the West imitation so very well!

He wanted to snuggle, too, along with jumping on the couch as he watched. As he gets older, his times of closeness get fewer and farther between. But he still wanted to hold my hand, loved to have his back rubbed, and let Grandma have one more snuggle time with him, as he was cuddled by Spiderman.

Joyful, Joyful....it lifts my heart for these special moments!