Sleepover, continued

It's really weird how a house can change in one minute: from rowdy and boisterous to absolutely quiet. Snap! I've left one life and reentered another! 

I am tired and happy -- a known to me state from all family visits. At night, the kids mostly slept and in the wee hours of the morning, they mostly wanted to be up, but for a visit that was just short of 24 hrs, it hardly mattered. 

(Misty morning skies outside... It's going to be a warm day.)

 

 

I got a chance to watch how the three navigate life together -- a rare treat for me. You get to understand what works well for them, and where they have had to learn to adjust, given the age differences. 

(breakfast: reaching for flowers which suddenly became in high demand)

What I also saw was a beautiful sweetness toward the youngest member of the threesome. Snowdrop had more of an older sib distrust of baby Sparrow, but with Sandpiper, she has relaxed, loving all his little baby gestures. 

 

 

 

Sparrow takes his cues from her on this. I'm predicting that Sandpiper will be the privileged youngest one here. There is something to be said for being the baby of the family! Sparrow, on the other hand, has to find a way to navigate the waters as the middle child. Sometimes it is so easy, other times, it's the toughest little ship to sail.

Art time.

(Sandpiper is trying hard to be upright. At 4.5 months, I have to make sure that if he falls, he wont tumble to the ground.)

(When Sandpiper naps, I take the two older kids outside. Familiar places: magic meadow, the secret pine house I'd carved out for them underneath the branches of the tall spruces -- all favorites from years of farmette play.)

And in the afternoon, the parents return and it's time to go home.

Evening in the quiet farmhouse. Instead being intensely focused on the kids, hearing their every worry, watching their every joy, I retreat to sitting back and thinking about their lives in their respective homes. Of course, thinking about them is beautiful too. Grandparents have the time to do that. To review, to process all that is unfolding in the lives of the younger families. To learn, to be amazed by it all. 

Having a quiet evening with Ed is grand too. Though I wonder if he misses someone thumping him on the side trying to keep him from taking a nap, or calling out to him to please remove a horrible 1 millimeter spider that has found shelter in a doll house. Eh, he's got me to remind him to chop up the compost pile or pop up some pop corn! It is never totally quiet here at the farmhouse!