What I Learned from Luke

About three weeks ago, I was asked to babysit for three of my grandchildren who live here in Gardendale; Katie Jane age 3, Luke age 2 and Olivia (Livie) just turned 1. Scott, our oldest son and Tamara, his wife were taking their oldest, Kennedy, to see a play. I got to the house and Kennedy was dressed for the evening looking lovely in heels. By the way, she is already 5' 9" in sock feet and she is 13.

Merritt, granddaughter of our third oldest, was over for a visit. She just turned 6. Sooo........get the picture, Nanny and 4 kids, 6 and under. Sound like fun? It was. Merritt, the older cousin, was a great little helper. She played well with Katie while Luke followed close behind observing and Livie scooted all over the house in a fashion not easily put into words. Her locomotion resembles a person in Indian sitting position with one leg curled and the other extended. The extended leg provides the leverage while the curled leg is scraped along the floor. Sounds strange but is quite effective.

Merritt and Katie were dragging purses around with toys and assorted "things" in them, so Luke decided to pick up an idle purse Katie had been using. It was blue-green with the shiny spangles all over it. All was going well until Katie realized that Luke had claimed her discarded purse. She immediately began grabbing for it while Luke resisted with his loudest protests. A tug of war ensued with tears and screams from both parties. All my efforts at negotiation failed and finally, Katie prevailed. Luke sat down on the floor and sulked for about 30 seconds and claimed another discarded purse with less appeal, but preferable to none.

Merritt and Katie played house with the Littlest Pet Shop while Livie disassembled their creations. About 7:30 Luke began to run around the house saying "nite-nite, nite-nite" and rubbing his eyes. He was tired and ready for bed. Faces washed, teeth brushed and pajamas on, Luke continued going all through the house repeating "nite-nite, nite-nite". Merritt tried to assist saying "Luke, what is nite-nite?" No response, just "nite-nite, nite-nite". We took him in every room in the house, looking in closets and under beds, offering every Kermit, Grover, Earnie, Mickey etc. we could find. Lori and Scott arrived about 8:15 to take Merritt home. Alas, my helper was gone.

I put Luke and Katie in bed, said prayers and turned on a Disney movie to lull them to sleep. No such luck for Luke. He would alternately lie down for 2 minutes, stand up in bed and scream "nite-nite, nite-nite". I put every blanket I could find in bed with him to see if any would suffice. Nothing worked! At 9:00 Scott called to check in, it was intermission at the play. I told him of my plight and he said "Oh, it's just his Elmo blanket. It is bluish-green with red Elmo's on it." I told him I had not seen it in all my searching and he said it had to be in the house. Luke had it earlier in the day. He said he would call back later to check on me to see if I had found it and closed with "He will not go to sleep without his nite-nite." I again searched all over the house, under beds, sofas, tables, in closets, and I even crept into Livie's room while she slept and looked in her crib for the elusive "nite-nite".

NO LUCK!

Scott called back at 10:00 as promised. No progress. No Elmo blanket. No "nite-nite". No other suggestions but convinced he was convinced Luke had hidden it somewhere in the house. I tried rocking him. He did not appreciate my efforts. He was restless and yearning for his comfort. I went back into the room and changed the movie to Peter Pan. I was stepping back to go around a childs foam easy chair and I almost tripped over it. When I straightened myself up my eyes fell on the edge of a fuzzy bluish-green with red BLANKET. Luke had stuffed it down into a pocket on the back of his easy chair.

I pulled the prized "nite-nite" out of its hiding place and walked over to his crib. He looked up at me and smiled. I spread the blanket over his little body and he immediately curled up into a ball, resembling a rolly polly. He closed his eyes and he was asleep in 2 minutes.

So you are wondering............and the point is? Luke's "nite-nite" incident posed a question to my heart. What if in our grown-up lives we were as passionate about not putting our heads on our pillows at night and closing our eyes for sleep until our COVERING, SECURITY, COMFORTER, PEACE, yes our SAVIOR wrapped us in His embrace and we had a warm conversation with Him. Wouldn't sleep be sweeter?
He is always there waiting, are we searching for Him?

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BLOGGING FRIENDS

I am so blessed by all of you who have visited my blog. I have visited all of yours through Nina's but I am really enjoying this so much. I have much to learn, like how to draft a post without really posting. Yesterday I was working on a new post about Luke, my third youngest grandchild and I realized later that when I published and then converted back to draft, my blog went out to Nina and probably some others. It is not quite ready so apologies.

Thank you from all of you who have become followers. I can't figure out how to email some of you after a comment or place myself on your blog as a follower, so this is for all of you. THANKS AND BLOGGY HUGS.

I hope to have time soon to consult with my expert DAUGHTER-in law about some of the technicalities of operating a blog.

I will be visiting soon.

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.

BEGINNINGS

Today I begin a new venture. I will become a blogger, whatever that is. I have been a follower of several bloggs for about a year. I got started when my son, Michael, after answering the call to serve his Lord as a missionary to Portugal, took my precious daughter-in-law, Nina and five of my beloved grandchildren across the ocean from me.

Nina began her blog "Portugal Bound" before they left but I began following it daily after their arrival in their new home. It has kept me in touch with the family and has allowed me to feel like a part of their mission.

I have grown to enjoy reading several blogs which I linked to from hers. Finding that I really enjoyed learning about people from far away places and feeling as if I knew them almost on a personal level, I have decided to enter the blogisphere myself.

One of the great passions of my life is my grandchildren. One of my greatest longings is to spend as much time with them as possible. My soul is nourished when I am allowed to enter their worlds and get a glimpse into their hearts. I like cooking for them, talking walks and finding "treasures" that their mothers may not appreciate, telling them stories about my childhood, playing games with them and most of all, just sitting and talking about random events and topics that reveal to me their thoughts, problems, hopes and fears. Their ages range from 17 to 1. I am truly blessed!

Well, welcome to my blog. Come with me as I learn how to do this and I'll show you some secret places in my heart, 18 of them.