Thursday, June 12, 2014

surprise!


It's quite easy to surprise someone 
who doesn't have much of a memory to speak of.

Yesterday, as you know,  was my turn with Gramma Joyce.
At various times, I take a single kid with me, so they get to spend alone time with both momma,
and their great-gramma.
Lexi considered yesterday 'her turn', with Lily just coming along
since there was no one to leave her with, with the boys being at camp.
I was really proud of her, because completely  unprompted,
(meaning I totally forgot to have the 'we are here to bless Gramma' conversation)
she opened and closed doors for Gramma
and even insisted on using Gramma's key (still attached to her purse...) to unlock the door when we got back from dinner.
She brought a deck of cards to play Go Fish, and didn't even flinch when Gramma took 3 cards from her, more than once.
(for a 5 year old who has been known to send her cards flying across the room when that happens, accompanied by a screaming fit, 
that's fairly impressive)
She sat by Gramma Joyce at dinner (Golden Corral) but couldn't really find any ways to help her...

Anyways, back to the surprise.
I hadn't called Gramma to say we were coming.
I usually don't - I figure she's not going to go anywhere, so she'll be there,
and she has a list of whose turn it is to visit, so she already knows I'm coming...
Sometimes she doesn't feel well, and thinks she wants to beg off, 
but I tell her I am coming anyways.
I figure if she really doesn't feel up to going out, I'll just visit with her at the house.
She's always been up to going out. :-)

When we knocked on the door, she had just hung up the phone from talking to my mom,
telling her she wasn't sure if anybody was coming or not,
so she was quite surprised when we showed up.
(she called her right back to let her know not to worry - I was there. 
The funny thing is - it was barely 5:00; way earlier than anybody usually arrives to visit or take her out)

So surprised and tickled about our coming,
at random points throughout the evening, she would clap her hands and exclaim,
"This is such a nice surprise! I'm so excited!"
(now you see where I get some of my exuberance from ;-)

I was telling Tyler about her happiness at our visit, and Lexi said dryly,
"Yeah. It got annoying. She said she was 'so excited' about 20 times."
(so, I guess we still have a ways to go yet, on 'blessing our elders'... ;-)

My intention had never been to surprise Gramma,
but it was kinda nice to have her so thrilled with our visit.
I may just surprise her again,
in six weeks.

4 comments:

  1. giggle giggle....its like that movie...50 first dates...everytime your with gramma!! lol, I am sure you blessed her anyway, and Lex is just the best!! xoxo

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  2. haha ha ~ yes, it is! (she had also 'never played that game before' ;-) And she was a little irritated that there was no clear winner, since there were a couple of 2's missing - they both had 6 books.)
    love you Sis!

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  3. more than once the thought of 50 first dates movie has come to mind when with your Grandma. she was excited to see people even before her stroke. that exuberance is real and has been for years.

    love,
    mom

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  4. wanted to also say how proud i am of Lexi when playing the card game with Grandma J not letting the cards go flying when Grandma Joyce took 3 of your cards! very proud and grateful for all 3 of you girls taking the time to spend time with Grandma Joyce!
    thank you,
    love Mom/Grandma

    ReplyDelete

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