By Vicki Scott
The beginning of our annual festivities for the Nana/Pop Camp will be this week. We’re still only doing two grandchildren at a time, but they are getting older. Every year, I gain even more respect for parents and grandparents in their child-raising endeavors, as one week of full-time care gives me a yearning for retirement or at least a vacation. For some reason, children have so much energy.
Saylor Rhea, our first grandchild, has endured our shenanigans since birth. Her younger sister Tyler Kate is in potty training but learning quickly. Saylor Rhea is four years old and already has ask about things she remembered from last year’s camp, which makes this year’s camp even more important since we are making memories. My prayer is that they are all good ones.
With COVID-19 in the air, we had to adjust our schedule. Noccalula Falls is on our camp schedule every year, and I praise God the train opened recently. When the grandchildren are old enough, we plan to walk the trails under the falls just like we did with our own children. I have fond memories of that day, except perhaps when a fly stung me and I almost passed out. Our children still laugh about it. They were so worried about me, I guess.
Saylor Rhea and Tyler Kate love the animals and the train at the age they are now, and that is enough for them. It would be nice if I knew some children their age for them to make friends with during their stay, but I am not that close to other kids. Kids make me nervous, but I love our grands!
The most fun Pop and I have is coming up with something that makes the parents of our grandchildren nervous. The first year, we took a picture of Saylor Rhea on one of her Pop’s motorcycles. It looked like Saylor was sitting on it by herself even though her Pop was ducked down beside her out of sight. We just knew our daughter would have a fit, but she did not. Her husband did, however.
This year, we’re thinking about taking pictures of our little darlings doing household chores like washing the car, the dishes and/or the dogs. If they find those chores fun, we might have discovered something we can use to our advantage.
On Tuesday nights, we’ve been playing bingo online, and Saylor wants to help. We might hold a special night for her mainstream debut. She acts like she is so grown, and bossy, too. We’ll have them from Thursday to Monday, so Saylor will miss our regular bingo night. While we were on the phone talking about bingo, she asked to facetime so she could see her prizes from last Tuesday.
We’ll be fine tuning the plans up until the last day of camp, which never has gone according to plan, and I do not expect it to this year. Our goal is to make sweet and precious memories in our grandchildren’s heart.
Eventually, we might be able to host all four during a camp, but I’m not counting on it. Two at a time is enough for us, then we’ll take a vacation.
Stay safe, y’all!