I have a sweet little story about my two oldest grand-daughters. I cannot imagine them being so grown up now, Madie will graduate from high school this year, and Samantha will be a sophomore this year. There have been so many special moments in my life with these two. From the first time I held them, it was love at first site. Not only are they beautiful and accomplished young women now, but they still have those beautiful hearts of true gold. Anyone could trust them with their life, they are loyal, hard working, honest, and possessed of integrity that is rare today. I am of course so proud of how they have grown into such young women, who trust in the Lord God.
One night when the girls were spending the
night with me and sleeping in the bed with me, they were wrestling, rolling around n the bed, talking,
laughing, and enjoying being together so much. They were five and three years
of age at the time, just a little older than in the picture above. It was getting on toward mid-night,
and I was exhausted having cooked and taken care of the whole
household all day. In those days it was an extremely large household at the time, due to all the family
being home. Both Madie and Samantha have always been a bit hard headed, (can't imagine where they got
that...) and settling them down with the ordinary admonishments just wasn't working. So in a fit of
creativity I whispered in a conspirator's tone... "did you hear that???
They both froze... "What Nana, what!!!" It's Stewart the Mouse, I
hear him running up and down the hall again in that Barbie doll car. I
wouldn't mind so much, but he never puts up anything when he is through
with it... He gets the Ken doll shorts and shirts out, gets them dirty,
and then leaves them in the floor for me to pick up and wash... He leaves the car out, with food wrappers and drink cups in the floor board, and leaves his dirty dishes too.
Samantha was looking at me like she is looking at Madie in the picture
of them above, she just wasn't quite buying it yet.
But
pretty soon with added details they both bought the whole thing. When
they would start cutting up again, I would say, I heard it again! He
has let that little bird in too... that means there will be an even
bigger mess... Then I would quietly reach
over the side of the bed and scratch the side of the mattress, or thump
the bed rail, or make some other covert noise and let them suddenly
exclaim to me, "Nana did you hear that!" I would sit up in bed and say,
I didn't hear anything that time, I must have fallen asleep. They
would then begin describing what they thought the mouse was doing. They
soon fell asleep as they laid quietly listening for Stewart and the
little bird girlfriend. Of course I had to get up early and I got the
doll furniture out, the little table and chairs, filled cups with a bit
of tea, and crumbled Cheese crackers in the little plates. I got doll clothes
out, the Barbie doll car, and left the door open, and the clothes in a
pile in the floor. I had tucked the whole little set up in a corner
where it was not real noticeable. I didn't say a word when they both got
up... just waited until they found it... I loved those big round eyes
when at last during their play they stumbled upon the staged scene... I
just said, "I told you he wouldn't clean up after himself!" For the
rest of that entire visit they couldn't wait to go to bed at night, and
would lay so still listening for the mouse...
