Out for Icecream

When your first grandbaby comes along, you are full of energy and can't wait to take him to the zoo or feed him that first ice cream cone. You hope mom and dad will let you take the kids all by yourself and are a little disappointed when they insist on tagging along..

But when grandbaby two comes along you realize that you are not as young as you used to be. It takes both grandma and grandpa to get both babies in and out of car seats and it takes twice as long to load up all the gear you need for even the most simple trip.  So instead of trying to talk mom and dad into letting you take the kids to get some ice cream, you wait for mom and dad to tell you they are going to take the kids to get some and then you invite yourself to tag along.

Messy face

When my own child was little, I was always quick to wash up a messy face. A messy face ultimately ended up leading to messy hands, messy clothes, and a mess on my living room furniture...

But as a grandma, I see a messy face as a symbol of childhood at its best. So I tend to let the messy face slide and take as many pictures as I can before mommy comes along, then I grab the closest washcloth and pretend to be worried about keeping that nice new t-shirt clean.

Plenty of trucks

When a grandchild comes along and suddenly this new little one begins raiding all the snacks in your pantry or leaving a pile of trucks on the coffee table, you don't feel the need to correct this...

Instead you make a note to keep plenty of trucks in the toy box and plenty of snacks in the pantry.

Layers of love

There are many layers of love. As a grandparent you begin to realize this concept. You love your own children and whatever happens in life, you love them deeply and unconditionally. 

When a grandchild comes along there is a realization that you are capable of loving even more deeply. The word unconditional doesn't apply to grandparents because there is no condition by which this new level of love can be tested or measured - it just is what it is.