Thursday, July 17, 2008

Sharing Simple Pleasures with a Granddaughter ...



Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we lose sight of simple little things in life that give us pleasure. A lot of things give us pleasure, such as a new car, or boat, or new clothes ... but I'm not talking about things. I'm talking about simple pleasures ... like rocking your grandbaby.

Our three-year old granddaughter Avery Grace has almost outgrown my lap, but I dearly love rocking her in the creaky old rocking chair that I rocked her mama in when she was a baby. I cherish our "rocking times" and guess I'll go on rocking her as long as she'll let me, no matter how big she gets.

I also love cooking with her. She's like a little sponge and her eyes just light up when I say, "Let's make cookies!" or "I need some help making potato salad," which she loves. Recently, we made a Lemon Pie ...


[If you'd like a delicious and easy Lemon Pie recipe, and would like to see more pictures of Avery making ours, please read my "On Cooking with a Granddaughter" post]

Another Avery-related "simple pleasure" turned out to be not so simple -- growing Morning Glories.

I wanted her to experience the whole process of planting the seeds and watering them and watching them grow. I even bought two packets of seeds, just to be sure some would come up. I also bought her the cutest little gardening gloves and little yellow watering can.

I didn't think we'd ever get all her little fingers in the right fingers of the gloves, but we finally succeeded and I showed her how to "dig" the holes, drop the seeds in, and cover them up. Then we filled her watering can and she gently watered them in.

And then we waited ...
and waited,
and watched,
and watered,
and waited some more ...
and NO Morning Glories.


Well, after about two weeks of watering and waiting and watching, I decided those seeds weren't going to come up, so I bought three more packets and planted them. I know, I know ... I probably shouldn't have done that, but I just couldn't stand for her flowers not to come up!

Every weekend when she came to see us, we would check for sprouts and water some more. Then, lo and behold, one day I saw these little fellas poking through the pine straw ...

Kind of pitiful looking, but at least I had something to show Avery, and I couldn't wait 'til that weekend.

She was so excited when she saw them, and we watered and pulled weeds around them and envisioned a profusion of blooms covering the fence.

We had "high hopes" for them, but I've never seen such slowwwwwwwww-growing Morning Glories. They took their own sweet time, but, after a while, they had little tendrils reaching out for something to cling to. We went to Home Depot and bought a trellis for them to climb, and every weekend Avery checked to see how much they had grown during the week.

Finally, our high hopes paid off -- we had a Morning Glory!

Again, I had to wait 'til the weekend to show it to Avery, but she was delighted and called her mama, granddaddy, and her great-grandparents (my parents), outside to see the Morning "Gwo-ey" (Avery-talk for "Glory").

I'm going to have my camera handy when I show them to her this weekend, because, at last, I think you can say we have a "profusion of Morning Glories" ...

I'll post a picture next week of Avery when she sees the blooms for the first time. I can just see her little face light up ... and that's always a pleasure for her Grandmama.

Sincerely,

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh Janie,
I love your story! I would have bought more seeds too...might have even bought the whole plant. Connor and I planted some zinnias about 10 days ago...I know it was late in the season, but we did it anyway.

He will be spending a few days with me before he starts 'real' school this fall, and I may have to help these along by buying a few plants at Lowes! They still have zinnias thank goodness.

I really enjoyed your post this morning. And I perfectly understand about those precious smiles!
Diane

Steve Buser said...

You have a very natural and homespun writing style. Like sitting on the porch at sunset.

Thanks for visiting http://NewOrleansDailyPhoto.blogspot.com

I'm glad I got to visit yours. Love the New Orleans slide show -- you captured the city well. And the Gulf Coast pictures were haunting. I did a few of from the Gulfport -- Waveland area last summer -- very somber.

Yazoo City was a special treat. I had a girl friend from their back in the college days. I spent a Spring break there one year meeting here family.

Great blog. I will add it to my blog roll.

bmwgal1948 said...

Love your blog.I always loved your posts on RMS.Avery Grace is such a cutie pie.
Linda from Pensacola,FL.

Karin said...

I wanted to grow tomatoes with my little ones this summer. It was quite exciting to choose the plants and put them in the ground. Unfortunately, they are also a little impatient, so now I have a line of green tomatoes the size of walnuts on my window sill. Ha Ha!

Tracey said...

Such sweet times you are sharing and memories you are creating with your grandaughter! I enjoyed reading that and can't wait to see her face when she sees all the beautiful flowers!
I enjoy your blog.
Sincerely, Tracey

Picket said...

Oh how precious..I love this..your little Avery is adorable and I would have bought more seeds two...oh I know the joys of 'that' look our little ones get when they get excited...our little 3 yr old granddaughter Sofie lives down the street and my heart jumps to my throat when I see her come thru the door Yelling 'Maw Maw where are you...I come to see you!' lol Are we blessed or what!? Isn't this some of the sweetest times of our lives to have lived to see this day and hold our grandbabies in our arms..enjoy that sweet baby!!!

Judy said...

Your times with Avery are priceless to you but she will always remember baking and "helping" you....I too am making memories with my little Ta-Ta. We have been out a couple of times for an all girl day....I remember when she was born, I could not wait to take her out for a little pedi, lunch and shopping. I do the pedicure here but we always hit McDonald's for a "handlburg" (her word for hamburgers) and a new purse or shoes. I'm such a sucker!

Hugs!
Judy

Anonymous said...

Hi again! I can just picture what Avery's face is going to look like! It will be precious! Now I don't mean to make you feel bad but I have been pulling morning glories out of my garden for weeks!I do believe the birds are the gardeners here since I never planted any!! The darn things keep appearing where I don't want them and they grow like crazy! I suppose I should let them bloom once just to see what color they are!!lol I'm not trying to rub it in I'm just laughing because I'm not as excited as Avery will be! I'll be checking for that cute face next week! - Jeannette