An Interview with Grandpa

People had always told us that becoming a Grandparent is a beautiful milestone in your life, one that is so special sometimes it’s just hard to articulate……. but let’s give it a try shall we?

Grandma: How has being a Grandfather changed your life?

Grandpa: My day to day life it hasn’t changed a thing, but that’s because the Grandkids don’t live nearby. But when they visit it changes our lives immensely because its been a thousand years since we’ve had little kids in the house and I forgot how many needs they have. (laughter) They need everything. And they need it now and they need it their way. So, nice thing is we can just tell them yes or no whatever we feel like because we are not responsible for whether they turn out ok that’s their parents job. So if we like what they do then we say YAY and if we don’t then we just tell them to knock it off.

Grandma: Ok. Then how did you feel the first time you held your
Grandchild. Let’s go with Rozlin. The very first time you held her.

Grandpa: It was pretty amazing. When I held her I more amazed at Nikki, then I was Rozlin, because Nikki made her. She was so tiny.

Grandma: She was only hours old right?

Grandpa: Right. She was like, I don’t know three hours old, four hours old. Super tiny but I was more overwhelmed of being proud of Nikki for having a baby. I guess because I’ll have many years to be proud of Rozlin for all kinds of different reasons.

Grandma: Well, circumstances being different, how did you feel the first time you held Lucas?

Grandpa: He was older. He was already older so that was a little different. Actually it was completely different because the first time I held him he responded to me. I mean, Rozlin was only four hours old so she didn’t respond to anything the first time. He kinda had a jump start on that. It was really cool to see a human being that just, um there’s no, um negativity or no baggage, to see another human being that has no baggage and they are happy to see you.

Grandma: I remember he was kinda playing with your face.

Grandpa: Yeah. So its kinda cool. I got a similar thing from Rozlin when she spent the afternoon with us in our hotel room in Las Vegas.

Grandma: And she colored on the comforter.

Grandpa: Crayons all over the white comforter of the hotel. They were washable but still, but that weekend with her was like the first time with Lucas.

Grandma: So, at this point what is your favorite Grandfather/Grandchild activity?

Grandpa: Um, huh. Um, I don’t know. Um, I had fun taking Rozlin to the park.

Grandma: And walking to the grocery store, that type of thing.

Grandpa: That was a fun activity. Um, I don’t know if we have enough activities under my belt.

Grandma: We don’t see either one of them often enough unfortunately. So at this point what would you like your Granddaughter and Grandson to remember about you.?

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Grandpa: I want them to remember me as being funny and I want them to see that Grandpa tries really hard to get as much out of every day as he possibly can and that I hope they can do the same because you can’t take it with you. So I hope they do. Rozlin so far does. She does get absolutely as much everyday she can. But, yeah I just want them to remember me fondly and maybe giggle when they think about me.

Grandma: I think I have one more question here. What do you look forward to doing with your Grandchildren. You can take Rozlin and Lucas separately if you like.

Grandpa: Um, I look forward to cheering them on if they get into sports you know, to go to their games and be the cheering grandparents or like first piano recital if they do that. Whatever their activities are. To be there as a support system but not have to be the one responsible to make sure they are wearing the right clothes or getting there on time, all of that because we leave that to Mommy and Daddy because we’ve done that, and its awesome we just get to show up and BE awesome. I’m looking forward to when they are older and those kinds of activities are available to us. Right now they are still young and it would be fun to take them on a cruise. They have to be older though. They have to tie their own shoes, and be able to dress themselves. Completely. Sit properly at a dinner table so they need some training before I will cruise with them but once they have that training I think it would be a blast. We would have a blast. Oh, and camping and teach them how to fish. Not that we catch any fish but we know how to fish. We just aren’t very good. We suck at it.

Grandma: Anything else you want to say? That was my last question.

Grandpa: Um, I think my favorite thing about being a Grandpa, is watching how you light up the room when they are near you.

Grandma: I do love it.

Grandpa: So, Grandma is my favorite thing about being a Grandpa. Grandma is my favorite thing about every thing.

Grandma: Well thank you Grandpa.

After the interview Grandpa said to me…..”Wow, those were thought provoking questions. I thought you were going to ask me …..What kind of candy are you going to always have available for them?”

So…..what kind then?…….Grandpa says Chocolate!