My mom was here all last week for Rosemary's first birthday. She flew in from Kansas City, and we picked her up after church last Sunday. She stayed all through the week and left a few days ago. Of course, the week that she comes once or twice a year always flies by quickly. This time was her first time to visit since my brother has moved down to Texas. My brother was often working during the day, so my mom would be Nana during the day and mom to my brother every night. Well, more of a buddy. He took her to all the fun and hip restaurants and bookstores. My mom had a pretty busy schedule, and I felt a bit bad for the girls flinging the playroom door open every morning around seven am. Maybe one day I will have a quaint little guest room. Where my mom can relax and rest. For now, she sleeps on the playroom floor on an air mattress. And the girls coming running in with the rising of the sun. Welcome back to motherhood mother, remember this?
The first day my mom, or "Nana" was here (it's funny that her name really is more Nana than mom now), we went to our favorite local park. I took my mom on our walk over the dam and through the woods on the dirt trail we walk so often. We pushed the girls in the double stroller and walked the mile and half to the park with the big sandbox. It was fun to show my mom a bit of what our days often look like. I know she had a lot of fun just watching the girls play. Rosemary and Blanche were busy in the sandbox for over an hour. We only stopped for lunch really.
Between Andrew and Austin leaving for and coming home from work, our daily routines, little trips here and there around town... I really felt like the days went fast. Too fast. I told Andrew after my mom left, I had wished we would have had a few days to take it slow and have her here for "our normal." But when Nana is in town to party maybe it just can't be normal. It is a bit strange that as I have become a mother, while I love asking my mom for advice or chatting about motherhood, so much of my relationship with her now is through the eyes of my own children. I watch my girls and how she treats and loves on them. This actually always makes Andrew cry when he talks about watching this with his own mother and our girls. This is the one and only subject that he is actually more emotional than me. I think it is the sweetest thing in the world. It is an amazing thing to see the mother or father who raised us, love on our own children. Grandparents love like no one else.
I am use to doing things "my way" with the girls all day and every day. So it was a growing experience to let my mom do things differently with Blanche. Once my mom left, Blanche was remembering all the fun things they did together. She said, "What did I do with Nana? Well, bouncy place in the mall, make-up, bubble baths, and candy. And that be it." There was also a night where I could hear Blanche in with my mom, close to ten o'clock playing games on her phone. I probably sound really boring compared to Nana. But it was good for me to learn to let go a bit and let Blanche and my mom have their time together.
Rosemary is now walking and becoming more like a toddler every day. So, she was a bit more hesitant with my mom this visit. I think Rosemary thought when I would leave the room that Nana was going to babysit or something. Rosemary would cry and stretch out her arms and run to me. Of course, by the end Rosemary was warming up to Nana. Those things make the distance feel real and a bit heavy. I wish Rosemary had more time and daily life with my mom to really know her. My mom brought a bike for Rosemary for her birthday and it was so cute to see Rosemary's excitement. I feel like the second child is so much "older" in ways that the first could not have been. Blanche at one really had no idea what a bike was, but Rosemary has seen Blanche and her friends ride bikes many times. When Rosemary woke up to her bike one morning, she walked over, patted it and we told her it was her bike. She said "baaiii" and got right on, proud that it was hers.
As I put up these pictures and type, Blanche is on the floor beside me watching a Signing Time. Andrew called as he is off work now. Blanche wanted to talk and said, "Nana no here now. It's no fun now." Blanche truly knows her Nana, even with the distance, and is experiencing the ache of having to live far away from some of her grandparents. This does however make the weeks when my mom is able to come, that much more exciting and special.
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