Monday, May 4, 2009

Longings

Trinity Sierra and Brooklyn Malena celebrate birthdays this week. I so long to see them. On Friday night I had a vivid dream of a visit. I was at home and I heard a commotion outside the door. As I approached the door I heard "I'm first, I'm first!" along with a chorus of giggles, screams and footfalls. The door burst open and I was virtually tackled by Brooklyn. We just sat down in the floor and laughed and cried. Sadly, the dream ended with my waking in tears. I didn't want to wake, I wanted to see everyone.

Such is the nature of long distance grandmothering. It consists of Skype calls, packages sent and viewing their mom's blog once or several times daily to catch or review pictures of life in Portugal and the beautiful faces of 5 of my precious grandchildren. Nina is also excellent at sending me frequent "Smileboxes" which contain pictures of daily happenings and an occasional video clip. Thank you, Nina. I love these special glimpses of their every day lives.

The last time I saw Trinity and Brooklyn, February 2008, they were 3 and 8 respectively. They have grown so much (I can tell from pictures). They are now 5 and 10.

Trinity is Miss Verbose. She can talk, seemingly without breathing, for minutes on end. She is into everyone's business and knows all that is going on (at least her version) in the family. She is very bright and expressive. It is a joy to listen to her and I am lucky if I can insert a comment into our conversation along the way. Happy Birthday to my favorite 5 year old!!! I love you bunches.


Brooklyn is more reserved, a reader by practice and self-declaration. She devours books and has since she could get anyone to read to her. She would always approach me with a book before she began to read herself. When I had the joy of having her spend the night in my home, she would cry if she had to go to bed with the light turned out because she wanted to read herself to sleep which might take hours if uncurtailed. Happy Birthday to my first Andrzejewski grandchild. I love you bushels.

Having a large number of grandchildren (18) gives me a wonderful view of God's amazing love for us. Not a single one is like the other. They are so unique and special that you get to see the handiwork of a loving Lord and share the joys of His creation in a very profound way. I have often pondered the individuality of each child, how some resemble their mother, some their father and each resemble both. Viewing them via Skype strangely allows me to see them differently than in person. Their facial expressions and body language remind me of their parents or often other family members.

This morning I was on Skype with them. It just so happens that 6am at my home is school lunch break at theirs. Trinity struggled for her solo dialogue, Justice pushed and shoved her out of the way to take over the full view of the camera and interject an occasional unintelligible word while flashing a 24 carat smile. Liberty sat very demurely and conversed like a 12 year old of what is going on at school. Faith told me how she missed everyone and wanted pictures and knee pads for bicycle riding, and Brooklyn talked of reading a book about dogs.

I sent a couple of boxes and they received them today. One mistake I made was sending one water pistol. Duh, Nanny, don't you know you can't have a water battle with one water pistol. Well, I will remedy that shortly. I also have a surprise coming in that same box. I plan to send it later this week. Watch for it kids. Nanny loves you, write me a comment.

10 comments:

  1. I miss you too. Of course we will watch whenever we know that we are going to get a package, as soon as we get home from school we ask if we have got a package.

    LOTS OF KISSES, Brooklyn

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mom, Trinity talks while she breathes! Thank you for the packages. We look forward to you coming to visit as soon as you are able. Tell everyone we said hello.
    Michael

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nanny,
    Michael gave Justice a haircut last night and he looks so handsome. I think it make be my favorite haircut yet. After several screaming, terrified displays at the barber, we had to do it at home. He was very brave!

    The video thing didn't work yesterday. I'm still working on compressing the videos so I can send them easily through emails or find a website that will allow me to upload them and then just send you a link. We'll see how that turns out.

    I'm looking forward to your next post.
    ;)

    I Love You

    ReplyDelete
  4. I had started a comment yesterday but then ended up not finishing it. The life of a Mommy doing way too many things at once. hehehe

    I love your blog! Your post made me think of my own Mom and brought tears to my eyes. I am going to tell her to follow your blog. I think you both will have so much in common. She follows my blog a little.

    I love how you described Trinity and Brooklyn. So sweet! They are gems for sure!!

    Thinking of you! God bless you for your sacrificial gift of your family to God´s service!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Janice,I read your blog and just like Nina's it's great of course.I'm glad you did the blog thing now I can keep up with you also since I don't get to see you as often anymore.I went by the other day and saw Dr. Hunt. Just wanted to let you know that.I love reading the little things you write about the girls it brings back precious memories,like reading to Brooklin before she could read,and the frist time she read to me.God bless you always and I will continue to read your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I came from Nina´s blog and think you started a great blog yourself. You write very interesting and you are blessed with many grandchildren! I long for my first... :)
    Will be checking back!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hello,
    I enjoyed reading your blog. We keep up with Nina's all the time. It will be great to read your as well.
    Sandy

    ReplyDelete
  8. Mrs. Janice (Nanny),

    I am so excited to visit your blog! I have been tremendously blessed by Mrs. Nina, and I am so looking forward to visiting you often!

    Jennifer

    ReplyDelete
  9. What a lovely post. Your grandaughters sound like amazing young girls. I love Nina's stories about them. Congrats on starting your own blog.

    -FringeGirl

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dear Janice, We just became followers of your blog. I really enjoyed reading it and believe you are a pro at it already! I especially like the fact that your grandchildren call you Nanny. That's what my "7" grandchildren call me, too:) Looking forward to reading more in the future, Judy
    PS I also love Nina's blog :)

    ReplyDelete