Grammy's Here!

Mia's paternal grandmother arrived yesterday and Mia is more than ecstatic about it. Grammy arrived during Mia's nap, and when Mia awakened, Grammy was right there. Jeff reports that Mia jumped up and tried to kiss Grammy right through the walls of her crib tent. You'd never guess Mia hadn't seen her Grammy since Christmas.
Mia is wild about her Grammy. She was bouncing off the walls last night, and why not? With Grammy in the mix, Mia has 3 adults watching her every move, reading to her, and generally doing her bidding. Another go-round of "Ring Aroung the Rosie"? No problem!
An incident this morning reminded me that I can learn something from Grammy, who parented three children and grandparented four more before Mia showed up. We had spent some time at a nearby shopping mall. As we headed back to the car after lunch, Mia wasn't being too cooperative. First, she demanded that I carry her the rest of the way, which wasn't too feasible given the sheer size of the mail. Barring that, she wanted to walk on her own, no hand-holding allowed. If you could call it walking. Mia ran zig-zag down the corridor, touching the plants in a planter one minute, zipping away to climb on a bench the next. Just as I'd catch up to her, she'd be off to her next conquest. (We'd astutely taken the elevator down to the lowest level of the mall, so at least I didn't have to worry about her jumping over any railings.) I finally stopped Mia and sat down on the floor, winding up to give her a talking-to about running in the mall. That's when Grammy had a bright idea. She asked Mia to help her carry the diaper bag. Grammy could hold one handle, Mia the other. It worked quite well, really. Maybe I'll patent it. "Hand-holding, twice removed." As we slowly made our way to the exit, I was reminded that my parenting book suggests that redirection is more effective than confrontation. Obviously, Grammy learned this lesson long ago.
We love having you here, Grammy!