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During the week prior to Thanksgiving, our eight year old grandson,  Connor stayed with us for three days.  This in part because school was out, and partly because his parents were both working, and he hadn’t stayed at Grandma, and Papa’s house in quite a while.   He set up his things in the office almost like a campsite with his iPod, cot, water, and of course not so much like a campsite, the TV!  He had so much fun the only time we realized we had him around was when he came in from the spa to bounce off the walls, and ask for food!  Let’s see, he cleaned out the yogurt supply, and complained we didn’t have any junk food to eat.  Still he didn’t go hungry, and was a busy eight year old, putting dried leaves and pine needles together in the mild  fall  sunlight with a magnifying glass trying to start a campfire.  To Connor’s credit, he was able to get all those dried leaves to smoke,…Twice!   Such innocent fun, but the energy he has, makes us feel like slugs!

By the third day, we were both dragging around in a fog.  Connor on the other hand went about his day on his scooter, and deciding he needed one more dip into the spa, just because he was stiffening up.  Stiffening up, he’s eight, “How much stiffening up does an eight year old do?”  We thought he might be humoring us, so we wouldn’t feel bad!

By Thanksgiving morning I figured maybe I should pull my act together and do some kind of project with him, so  I asked him if he would like to make a pillow for his bed?  He thought that would be a great idea, so together we pulled out the stuffed pillows I had saved for such a project, and found a large piece of fleece for the cover.  Seeing that Christmas is just around the corner  I’m sure had a slight influence on him, because he picked a holiday print with holly and red birds on it.  If that makes him happy, I’m happy!

As the fabric was laid out to be cut, I realized how really large the pillow was (30″ x 30″).  There was enough fleece, but I had to be the one to cut it, and it was looking like more work than imagined.  Once it was the right size,  I decided to cut fringe on all four sides about 4″ in,  at 1″ intervals to tie together in knots.  While the fabric was being cut, and the fringe was being tied all around, it dawned on me that this project that we were doing together, was now a project that I was doing alone!  Every once in a while he would wiz by the dinning room slider on his scooter, and check in to see how “our” project was going.  The funny thing is, I remember doing the same thing to my grandmother when I was just about the same age!  What goes around, comes around!

All in all we had a fun three days, ending on the afternoon of Thanksgiving.  While we all gathered for dinner in gratitude,  at some point I realized I was thinking, “How much I really needed to lay down, I’m exhausted!”  The most important part of the entire visit was that Connor had a great time,  Papa and I rallied once again, and Connor loved the  pillow “we” made together!  Moments like those only come while the grandkids are small, once the grow older, their interests grow bigger, and we won’t see them for any overnight adventures!