It'll only be a very short time before they're gone

Arrangements were made earlier in the week by the three boys' mommy for us to pick them up at the day care center of the smallest grandson, which is the same place the two older boys go and wait for mommy after their normal school day.

No problem, though we've never been there before, we have the old reliable GPS, right? All we needed was the address and we were all set to go.

We left Little Princess and her mommy at the house so she could get a nap and maybe a chance to at least see the boys before they had to leave to pick up Little Princesses' daddy from the train.

It's never easy to make the short 11-15 mile trip over to their area without spending at least 45 minutes on the road. Traffic, lights and just general roads and schools create problems along the way. We allowed an hour to be able to get there in time to pick them up by 3:30. This would assure the two older boys had a chance to get from their school, by bus, to the day care center and also allow the youngest one to have plenty of time to get his afternoon nap in.

We followed the directions of Delores, our GPS lady, and took a slight right onto an only lane and she dinged to give us the thumbs up...until she realized we had done something to blow her little computer mind. She didn't mean that slight right, now she would have to recalculate to see how and why we have veered off course. Before she had a chance to jump in with her usual robotic, but now exhausted voice, "Make.an.illegal.u-turn.at.the.next.possible.road." OK, she really says at the next legal u-turn but she always sounds like she's saying make an illegal u-turn. Anyway, we beat her to the draw and turned around,thereby confusing her once again. By the time we got back to the main road she was still whirling here little miniature computer parts desperately searching outer space for her satellites, trying to once gain her balance,we were already back on track without her help. It was obvious some human being had to take over control of this situation.

By the time the discombobulated Miss Delores had time to recover, we had managed to get into a left-turn only lane because Delores kept telling us we had reached our destination, (I'm sure her little computer parts were steaming hot at this point and she was just hoping we really had actually reached our destination,) but we couldn't see our destination, so we landed up in the wrong lane and had to turn around. Another brain problem for poor Delores. You learn you reach a point where you have to turn her off in more ways than one when you don't follow her directions...continually. She's very persistent.

We could see the day care so we thought we could attack it from the rear. Not possible,so we had to get back onto the road once again, turn around and try once more. Then it was turn left so we could turn left again and get back to a light that would get us on the main road in the right direction. Look ahead. There's a major amount of traffic in between where we are and where we want to turn left, so we decide to turn right and approach from that direction.

Finally there. Out of the car only to realize you can't gain access to the inside of the building until you've punched in the "secret code". Um, Mommy failed to share that bit of information and the code with us. Try looking nice and grandparenty looking so some nice man picking his little rugrats up will have sympathy on us. It worked. He didnt share the code, but he did punch it in and let us follow him. Then to find someone to find our boys. Ah, there she is over in the corner. She gets us to the location of all three of them. Find child #1, child #2 and then spot child
#3. Then he bursts out into a fit of tears as though he is being kidnapped by a bunch of wild people he would rather die than go with them. He didn't want us. He wanted his mommy. Should we run while we still have a chance?

This is the second time he's done this. Only since he's been back in town. When he would come for a visit for six weeks at a time he was glad to go with us, but not now!

Then, of course, all the teachers were looking at us as though they, themselves, were convinced that we had been beating him mercilessly everytime we saw him because why else would such a sweet little angelic boy like him protest so loudly if we were really such good grandparents? I half expected them to call Child Protective Services to keep that poor little sweet boy from being carried off into the great blue yonder by such awful, awful grandparents.

Talk about embarassing! Maybe we could just leave him and one of those suspicious teachers could just carry him home with them to spend the night, huh? We could just sneak out with the other two...well, he finally settled down after he stopped yelling, long enough for me to convince him that his big brother was going, too. He didn't really care if the second one went. Just take the older brother. They're big buddies.

Of course Child #2 never can make it anywhere without having to stop by the gas station for refreshments. We missed the first one because we were in the center lane and the gas station was on the right. But he didn't. He protested until we finally found a McDonald's which was satisfactory with him.

In the meantime, someone had found a package of freshly opened straws I kept in the back of my seat so we could have flexible straws for Little Princess when she was with us.

Those straws multiplied like a bunch of bunnies. I didn't know one pack could hold so many straws and each child had to have his fair share. OK, that would keep them quiet and entertained for a little while, I reasoned. After all that's pretty cheap pleasure for a dollar. And I even volunteered to help Child #3 expand his straw size and turn it into a triangle by squeezing the ends together and poking them into the ends of each straw. Pretty neat, huh? Right. Then the fun began as their extended play pretties began to poke each others eyes, and all the howling coming forth from the back seat, you can't even imagine.

And,did I mention, Granddaddy and I had carefully determined the best way to place the car seat in the car to most effectively keep the two older boys apart. They love to intrude on the other's personal space, and it always leads to havoc, so Child #3's seat would go into the middle of the car. That sounded like a good idea until the two older boys decided to attack him from both sides. Poor little fellow, he didn't get a minutes rest and he's a very vocal child. He takes after his grandparents side of the family in that he can't utter a sound without it being in the loudest possible voice. It's very hard to ignore it and almost an hours drive is a l.o.n.g way to hear screaming. I know. I've lived through it at least two different days. From the same little body.

Some of the conversations that went on in the back seat of the car, not necessarily just on the way home from the day care, but at some point: Child #2, "Shush up! You're hurting my ears!" Child #3, "DON'T TELL ME TO SHUSH UP! I WILL NOT SHUSH UP! DON'T TELL ME TO SHUSH UP!" Fist fight ensues. Loud voices break out. Crying comes from the middle of the seat.

At another time Child #2 says to Grandmomma, in a very whiny voice,"I don't know why I have to sit in a booster seat. I'm not a five-year old. I'm not a three-year old. I'm not a baby. I'm be seven before long. I don't know why I have to sit in this stupid old booster seat." To which child #3 chimes in, "NO, YOU'RE NOT A THREE YEAR OLD! (that's child #3's age, so he won't share it with Child #2) and Child #1 responds, "Oh, you're being such a baby. You're so whiny. You're acting like a three-year old!" Back and forth, bickering, bickering, bickering. In a very small closed-in car, which is shrinking by the second.

But there were fun things I heard, too. I listened as one child would tease the other with, "I see a smile on that face!" And it brought back memories of me at times trying to coax their father into a good mood when he was a little boy. He grew older and learned to perfect the most solemn face before he could hold it no long and burst out with laughter. Most times it worked and would put him in a much better mood. Apparently their father had engaged them in the same child play and they were loving it. Child #1 said he needed practice so Daddy couldn't make him laugh and practice they did.

Then another time, after hearing Grandmomma go through not one, but two names before finally getting it right on the third try, Child #1 remarked he wished his name was not so unusual, that he had a simple name like his brothers because he thought we were having a hard time remembering his name, I guess. It's hard to explain to a child that for some reason parents and grandparents must go through the entire list of children/grandchildren before they can finally address the child with his/her given name. It's not that you've forgotten his real name at all. Sometimes it even comes down to saying, "Child #1, Child #2, I mean Child #3, blah, blah, blah" or maybe even you find yourself adding, "or whatever your name is".

It isn't anything personal indicating you don't acknowledge them as a real person with a real name, it's just that you have to go through the list sometimes to make sure you've got the right kid. Someday he'll understand. It doesn't matter how simple or different the name is, it will always be the same.

Back to the straw incident,earlier when threatened by Grandmomma to remove every single straw from their clutches and when asked why did Child #2 find it necessary to pull all those straws out in the first place, Child #2 replies, "I didn't pull them out, they just jumped out." Child #1: "You did, too, pull them out, I saw you do it!" Child #2: "Well, I put them back into the back of the seat and THEN they just jumped out! Besides, I'm just curious!" Amen to that statement! You are indeed, "just curious." Child #2 has always been my grandchild who can figure out ways of putting his words into some really cute sayings.

And let's give credit where credit is due: When asked of Child #2, why he chose to do whatever he's managed to find to do, his favorite line and with all sincerity he will blurt out, "But my big brother made me do it!" Most times I'm sure that's very true, but sometimes I think it's just an excuse for him. However, Big brothers do have a tendency to lead you places then just dump you. It's fun to see how much trouble they can lead the other child into without getting blamed themselves. So, I have to snicker and hope he learns his lesson before he follows the big brother he adores into major, major bad deeds.

When we arrived at the house, they were warned to stay outside until Little Princess woke up from her nap. They didn't want to stay outside. It was hot! Three little bodies quickly disengaged their seat belts and into the house they went, voices first. It wasn't long before Little Princess woke up in a not so good mood.

Now the last time she saw them they were at their house and she immediately took up with them and ran with the wildest, but this time she hung back. They were much too wild for her to participate in their wild antics this time. Also, she wasn't too sure how these little animals had invaded her Grandmomma and Granddaddy's house without her knowing it and, she never really found them too entertaining.

When their aunt showed them a couple of scrapbook pages she had done when the oldest two of them, little Princess and she and we grandparents had gone blueberry picking, they laughed while child #2 says, "Little Miss Attitude". He kept referring to Little Princess as "Little Miss Attitude". Wonder where that came from? Did it just shine through? Maybe.

After they had spent what seemed like forever running around inside the house, hiding from the other, screaming at being found, screeching into the newly discovered baby monitor which was blaring away in our ears in the family room, etc., Granddaddy came in and asked Grandmomma, "Can't we just cut the television on and let them watch something?" He was desperate, I could tell! And I was getting there. Sounded like an excellent idea to me, except Little Princess isn't allowed to watch television, and it was a bit of distraction to her as she stretched her little head and twisted her little body in order to get a better glimpse of "that thing she never gets to see" as she was trying to eat and Mommy was trying to get her out the door to pick up her Daddy.

But the boys settled down. And that made it worth it. Until we got into the car to go eat. For some reason television programs don't end at exactly the same spot they should. But we finally convinced them to leave to go eat. At Granddaddy's favorite place...The Varsity. Fight, fuss, act like little boys, all over again.

Don't let me mislead you to believe I don't think these are good little boys. They are great little boys, they're just little boys, all three of them. I only had one little boy. My experience is limited to that one little boy, not multiplied by three!

On the way we waited in line at Costco for about 15-20 minutes for gasoline (because of the expected shortage of gasoline because of Hurricane Ike, we had these lines,) but we needed gas because we would be making another trip back over to meet their mom tomorrow, so we needed gas. Twenty minutes is an unrealistic amount of time to expect three little boys to remain half way civil. So, it got kinda noisy in the back seat.

We finally got to The Varsity and the boys decided they wanted to eat outside. Probably a good idea so the inside people could eat their meals in peace. They stayed in their places like good little kids almost the entire meal with the exception of a few moments of forgotten rules when they would slip off their seats, but they were pretty good during the meal.

Then they decided to run and romp. Granddaddy didn't want them to because he was afraid one would fall and get hurt. That was a good possiblity, but I thought they needed to get all that excess energy before getting home. Then they grabbed their straws and attacked each other and cast spells on each other and tromped through the poor flower bed before I could stop them, but they had a great time. Just being little boys.

Finally home. It was bathtime and time for teeth brushing, and other odds and ends so we could put down the "blow up" bed the two older boys had been begging to sleep on since we started out on the trip home. They love to lay out on the uninflated bed while Granddaddy "blows" it up.

They needed to be in bed on time because there was a 9:00 football game for Child #2 followed by a 10:30 soccer game for child #1. Finally they were bathed and in bed, but not before Child #1 and Child #2 found a little round water holder normally used as a spare for a toy water gun. They made their own concoction of water, a couple of blends of toothpaste, some of Aunt's cleansing cream, some liquid soap for sudsing and who knows what else, and they wrongfully suspected they would get it past Grandmomma to play with it in the bed when they were supposed to be sleeping.

How did they mix all that together before you found them, Grandmomma, you ask? Well, while Grandmomma was trying to wash a few clothes and help get Child #3 settled in, it just happened. Granddaddy was good about getting Child #3 bathed and getting him to bed, so I can't take a lot of credit for taking care of him. But, in all fairness, I had to supervise. So I was pre-occcupied.

Anyway, they did settle down fairly fast and Child #3 was sleeping on the big bed in the extra bedroom. Granddaddy was going to stay with Child #3 until he went to sleep, then we were going to catch up on watching some television,but Child #3 couldn't get to sleep, so about an hour later, Granddaddy got up and left him. He never cried or complained a bit like he did with me when he stayed before and begged me "Will you seep with me, Grandmutter?"

I never sleep well when they spend the night. I'm always afraid one or two, well in their case, both of them might escape through the kithen door or one will need me during the night and I might not hear him, even with the baby monitor on in Child #3's room, I worry. But apparently no one needed me after all. At least they didn't complain. Or I didn't hear them.

This morning when I got up Child #3 sweetly announced he was ready to get up. He ran into the front of the house and pounced on his two sleeping brothers and war was declared once more and another day began. Just like the previous one ended.

Granddaddy fixed waffles and bacon for the boys while I gathered things from the dryer and herded them into their bags for an early trip back to Mommy. Check list made to make sure all lovies are in the back, all clothes are there, all paci's are in place, all...Mommy called around 7:15 and said she was on her way and could we meet her. "No, not yet. We're still having breakfast but I'll call and let you know when we're on the way." About 45 minutes later they were reunited with their mother and we went our separate ways. Grandmomma and Granddaddy really needed their rest. Maybe next time we'll watch their football games and soccer games, but this time we just needed our rest. And that's exactly what we did all day long today. And they all lived happily ever after!

They really are three of the sweetest little guys around. There is such a sweet and gentle side of them as one reaches over and comforts the other, with hugs and kisses before they engage in another bout of whatever creative creatures they've invented, which will inevitably lead to another war, both real and imagined.

And all those sweet lovings they give to us just because "they're themselves". The hand holdings, the sweet conversations, everything nice about them.

We all know our grandkids have us pegged as suckers. We'll fall for anything and everything when they're around, and they know it. It's just a matter of surviving while they're testing.

Someday they'll settle down and have their own little families, and I can read this back to them and remind them just what they were like when they were 3, 6 and 8. I love you guys, now and forever. And before we know it, they'll be gone. In such a very short time! Gone as the little boys we enjoy so much now, on to another phase of their lives. But for now we'll love them. Just the way they are.