A Grampa’s Perspective
Why is it on the day of the week you can sleep in, you get up earlier then the rest of the week? That is what happened to us. I think Debbie after a long week was determined to sleep in at least past 5:00 a.m. but it didn’t happen. When she came into the bedroom at six, I said, “you might as well make homemade cinnamon rolls” which she had already started. So I go out of bed earlier than I have the rest of the week.
This was probably good. It gave me time to read my morning Bible assignments before the rustle of little feet coming up from the basement after the grandkids woke up. They were eventually followed by mom and dad.
Another first for me this morning was that I used the walker to get from the bedroom to the kitchen table. Later I moved from the kitchen table (after C hristian helped me stand up to my walker) and m ade it to the recliner in the living room. I than had Caedmon drive my wheelchair from the bedroom to the living room.
It has been fun to see Christian and Bridget’s kids grow and develop their own personalities and show their own birth order uniqueness.
Riley (age 7) is doing well in school. He is reading well and seems fairly secure and content to focus on his own pr
ojects. He played with his toys while Caed motored around in my wheelchair without pushing him out for a turn.Riley is learning baseball skills and enjoys playing catch with his dad; he even caught some pretty high hand-thrown fly balls. He also, told grandma, “grampa is doing really good with his throwing!” You know you are still in rehab when a seven year old throws better than you do! We were playing Uno this morning and Riley got out the notepad and wrote all the names down including “grampa” after all that is how it sounds and pretty much how we say it.
Caedmon (Age 5) Caed turns six in July and this morning he was showing us that one of his teeth is already lose. He did a great job motoring around in my power wheelchair. He kept it on low speed and was careful in a limited area and showed some pretty good skill. Caed is a typical second born jokester.When taking pictures you Caed doesn’t need prompting to do “funny faces”instead you have to get him to be serious. He is also more affectionate than older brother.
Elliana (Age 2) But turns three the end of April. She is miss competition. What else could she be with two older brothers? Debbie says, “She’s a smart little whip. But what do we know, we’re only her grandparents?” Sounds like a 
grandmother. At any rate she is getting use to exerting herself. She just at times forgets that parents are not siblings. But it does look Christian and Bridget have successfully navigated the worst of the “terrible twos” stage. She doesn’t like to be left out of anything her brother’s are doing. We have notice that Ellie is “little miss caregiver”; at least with grandpa. She likes to bring me and if she can feed me my pills.
Birth order traits,personalities, even “spiritually motivated” giftings (Rom 12) can be observed in our children as they begin to develop. Responding to each child according to their needs, helping them overcome weaknesses and developing their strengths is the ongoing challenge of parenting. And I’m sure many parents felt their job was over with the end of potty training!
The challenges can be great, but the rewards are many. That’s what grandchildren are all about!
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY…
“But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children” —Psalms 103:17 (NIV)
“Children are an inheritance from the Lord. They are a reward from him.” Psalms 127:3 (GW)