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Being Geema and Poopa - A True Gift

Being parents has definitely been our proudest accomplishment. We have two sons, Mason and Brandon. We have treasured each chapter of their lives, but now they are grown adults and busy making lives all their own, so we are also blessed with two wonderful daughter in laws, Hannah and Anna.

Parenting is hard though. I was a pretty high strung mama, rushing through life from one task to the next, so I never really felt like there was ever enough time and I will always regret that. Thankfully my husband was always pretty chill so we balanced parenthood out I guess :) But... that hard work pays off in the form of GRANDCHILDREN! We are blessed to have one so far, a granddaughter, and she is the love of our lives.

She has already taught us some valuable lessons in her young life. Being a “geema” (as she calls me) and a “poopa” (as she calls her grandfather) means learning to slow down, live in the moment, and truly enjoy the simple things.

Sometimes it’s as easy as pushing her on the swing set or heading to the park to slide down every single slide (yes—we go down them with her!). Other days, it’s packing up the beach toys, buckets, sunscreen, and chairs for a trip to the beach.

No matter what we’re doing, when we’re with her, life is just pure FUN!

Being that we had two boys, having a girl in our lives now has been so different and so much fun! When my kids were little, I was the arts and crafts, coloring, playing board games, putting together puzzles and riding in the wagon to the park kind of mom, while my husband was the building forts, playing Star Wars and video games kind of dad! I have thoroughly enjoyed continuing my love for all these activities with our granddaughter. And to watch him play with baby dolls and stuffed animals and pretend restaurant with her is enough to just melt your heart.

I thought it would be fun to compile a list of all the fun things to do with grandchildren, and I would sure love to get all of your feedback on some more ideas! The beauty of children is, it doesn't have to be extravagent to be meaningful. I hope these ideas will be helpful when you are looking for fun things to do with your children or your grandchildren. Here they are:

Aquarium - so far we have taken her to the South Carolina Aquarium
Zoo - we have taken her to the Riverbanks Zoo
Beach - Folly Beach and Isle of Palms are our favorite
Making science experiments
Building with Magna Tiles
Going to the pumpkin patch
Petting zoo
Making cookies
Making forts in the living room
Making a box house from the new refrigerator and decorating it!
Side walk chalk
Water table
Blowing bubbles
Throwing water balloons
Picking wildflowers
Walking to the park to play on the playground
Eating at many restaurants
Playing babies
Reading books
Singing countless nursery rhymes- her favorite
Playing tea party
Cooking dinner together
Playing soccer in the backyard with Nala (her dog) scoring goals
Spending precious time just talking and talking about nothing and everything
Facetiming
Coloring and painting
Stringing beads
Playing Duplo blocks and Legos
Playing office
Using our imaginations (the best with a toddler)

One of my favorite things to make with my kids when they were little was homemade play dough. One time I found a recipe that called for Jell-o and it was the most delicious smelling play dough we ever played with, so I'd like to share the recipe with you all, courtesy of https://thecraftathomefamily.com/jell-o-play-dough/#wprm-recipe-container-9028

Jell-O Play Dough

Prep Time: 5 Cook Time: 5 Cooling Time: 5 Total Time: 15

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

6 tbsp table salt

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 box (3 oz) flavored Jell-O powder

1 cup water

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Instructions

Combine flour, salt, cream of tartar and Jell-O powder in a medium saucepan (with the heat turned off).
Add water and vegetable oil and stir until combined.
Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture becomes a ball of dough that no longer sticks to the sides of the saucepan. This should take no more than 5 minutes.
Set the play dough aside to cool. Once it’s cool enough, knead it with your hands until smooth. Then, give it to your child to play with!

Notes:

Store play dough in a sealed zip-top bag when not in use.

When our granddaughter was 18 months old we took the whole family on vacation to California. My mom's whole family lived there my whole life so we spent many summers going there for a visit. My sons loved these trips, as did their dad. So he and the boys thought it would be fun to "relive" it. Times sure have changed from when they were little but, we made the best of it! I believe our granddaughter's favorite part of that trip was sitting in the hotel lobby waving at all the people coming in the door while trying out all the different couches and chairs, all while eating snacks. We were also able to take the family to Disneyland, which I knew she would never remember and perhaps be way too young to enjoy the characters. Boy were we wrong! I will never forget the look on her face when she met them, especially Pluto. She was enamored.

Later this year we will all go on another family trip, this time to Walt Disney World. She is going to be so much fun now that she is bigger and will thoroughly enjoy all the characters and rides and everything Disney has to offer. We are so looking forward to a life time of experiences with our granddaughter.

I have decided that if I could go back and do parenting life all over again, I'd want to be a geema first, because it has taught me to slow down and truly enjoy her, to be in the moment with her, to play babies with her, to play make believe with her, and to just be...