My four year old grand daughter has been living with us for a quarter of her young life. Her mommy and daddy have lost their way and are struggling to find the path that leads to home and family again. Until they do Gramma and I are privledged to have her in our lives.
One of her favorite things to do is to take a walk through the woods and down to the river. She loves pointing out deer tracks in the mud and leafy squirrel nests in the tree tops as we walk along and she shushs me from time to time so that I too can hear the crow or blue jay call that she thinks I just missed. She looks for frog and salamander eggs in the small shallow pond that we pass on our way to the river .
Once at the river she loves looking for and collecting the empty clam and snail shells she finds along the bank. These she places in a small pile beside me in the sand where I have sat down to watch her. As she bounds off to search for more she hollers over her shoulder to "Watch those for me grampa".
She loves sifting though the smooth multi colored stones of the gravel bar to find that special one or two that she will take home to add to her collection.
When she finds a thin flat one she gets my attention so I can watch her skip it. She is always disappointed when it just plops and sinks but she keeps trying and one of these days she'll get it just right and I can already picture the big smile that will light up her face when that happens.
At home she loves to help me fill the feeders , clean the bird baths, and put up new bird houses and she takes great delight at pointing out the different birds that she sees at the feeders. She has her own bird list hanging on the refrigerator door with all the birds she has seen. 18 of the 27 birds on the list have stars beside them which means she not only has seen them but can identify them as well. Her list runs from ruby throated hummingbirds to pilleated woodpeckers to wild turkeys.
Just at dawn this morning I was sitting on the back porch watching and listening to the birds at the feeders. It was chilly and I was sitting there under an old quilt when I heard the sliding glass door open and turned around to see her wiping the sleep from her eyes as she came out to join me. Without waiting for an invitation she climbed up on my lap to curl up and share my quilt and we sat there watching the chickadees , cardinals, and the rest of our morning visitors. She is always quiet for awhile right after she wakes up so we sat without talking for a few minutes.
After awhile she lifted her head off my shoulder and whispered, “I love you Grampa.”