You Are My Sunshine

We went to our granddaughter's school for Grandparents' Day and they sang "You Are My Sunshine" to us. Twenty-two six-year-old voices are really adorable. They had practiced all day and had all of the words firmly in mind. I wanted to adopt the children who were in tears because their grandparents couldn't attend. The teacher was very sensitive and put  them in charge of the refreshments so they could feel important too.

 

The teacher had an art project for the students to produce and to present to the grandparents. It holds a place of honor on my refrigerator door with her other art projects. I always marvel at how much we worried about her and how far she has come in six years. She was a breech birth, emergency C-Section, near preemie. A few developmental problems seemed present for a few early years, but she seems to be doing very well now. She chats nonstop and uses some advanced words correctly which thrills me.

 

While we played on my computer last weekend, she asked me what I did with my time while she wasn't visiting. I told her that I love to read. I pointed to all the stacks of books in my office and said I loved reading all of them. I told her that I go to the public library as she does to check out more books every week. Later in the day, she showed me that she was reading a book on her mother's Nook. The new e-readers are a great developmental tool for children who are learning to read. I was amused to read the directions on the first grade wall directing new readers on how to learn to read.

 

I had not thought about the little song that the students sang to us in a very long time. It has greater importance to me today because my grandchildren are really my sunshine. However, even little rays of sunshine need a behavior chart in their classroom!

They Said It Better

After spending a great Sunday playing with my two grandchildren, it is a pleasant tiredness and the knowledge of time well spent.

I can't say enough about the joys of spending time with grandchildren. They are exhausting, require great patience but give the wealth of their presence. They are one of the best experiences life has to offer.

Having grandchildren is my compensation for having missed having living grandparents.


I like to read the eloquent musings of others about grandchildren and grandparents:
 
Do you know why grandchildren are always so full of energy?  They suck it out of their grandparents.  --Gene Perret

 What a bargain grandchildren are!  I give them my loose change, and they give me a million dollars' worth of pleasure.  --Gene Perret

A grandmother is a babysitter who watches the kids instead of the television.  --Author Unknown
 
What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance.  They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life.  And, most importantly, cookies.  --Rudolph Giuliani


A house needs a grandma in it.  --Louisa May Alcott


Our grandchildren accept us for ourselves, without rebuke or effort to change us, as no one in our entire lives has ever done, not our parents, siblings, spouses, friends - and hardly ever our own grown children.  --Ruth Goode


When a child is born, so are grandmothers.  --Judith Levy

Being grandparents sufficiently removes us from the responsibilities so that we can be friends.  --Allan Frome

When grandparents enter the door, discipline flies out the window.  --Ogden Nash


If I had known how wonderful it would be to have grandchildren, I'd have had them first.  --Lois Wyse


Grandfathers are for loving and fixing things.  --Author Unknown

The reason grandchildren and grandparents get along so well is that they have a common enemy.  --Sam Levenson

Grandchildren are God's way of compensating us for growing old.  --Mary H. Waldrip

If nothing is going well, call your grandmother.  --Italian Proverb

Grandmother-grandchild relationships are simple.  Grandmas are short on criticism and long on love.  --Author Unknown

Grandparents are there to help the child get into mischief they haven't thought of yet.  --Gene Perret

I like to do nice things for my grandchildren - like buy them those toys I've always wanted to play with.  --Gene Perret


A grandmother pretends she doesn't know who you are on Halloween. --Erma Bombeck


My grandchild has taught me what true love means.  It means watching Scooby-Doo cartoons while the basketball game is on another channel.  --Gene Perret

Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.--Alex Haley

Elephants and grandchildren never forget.  --Andy Rooney