“How old is the baby?” I smile at the new mother. I guess my grey hair is not intimidating; she replies with a smile, “Three days old!”
Wow! This is a different world. I am sitting in a small café with dozens of other hungry people and there is a three-day-old baby in our midst.
“Yes, we were on our way home from the hospital and I was hungry so we stopped in for something to eat. Would you like to hold him?”
More surprises … for six weeks, I never let anyone except my husband hold our daughter. So I gently pick up the warm little bundle and, with a grandiose gesture, walk around the café showing him off.
New babies remind me that God has not lost his belief in us. New babies are hope for the future and even the most hardened heart can scarcely resist their smiles.
When I became a new grandmother I had lots to learn. The children’s section in the department store was like another world. What were “sleepers”? And where were the diaper pins and the yards of flannelette that I had sewn into diapers and tiny nighties? Like treadle sewing machines, they had disappeared. This was a brand new learning curve, but through the years I must have picked up a few smarts. Once, when helping at a flu clinic, I had a three-year-old crawl right into my lap and settle down. His startled mother stared, dumbfounded. I just laughed and said, “He knows a grandma when he sees one.”
I recall watching a little lad walking rather awkwardly towards the mall. His mother looked down and suddenly pulled off his small plaid shorts. A quick flash of legs and they were on their way. “He dressed himself this morning,” she explained. “He had both legs in one hole.”
Children can make you laugh or cry or, sometimes, both at the same time.
On one occasion my small, visiting grandson accused me of stealing him. He was very polite about it, but after days without his mother he announced, “Some people shouldn’t steal other people’s children.” I assured him that grandma had just borrowed him for a short while and would return him to his proper owner soon.
I love my daughters dearly but must admit that my grandchildren are the icing on the cake of life and make each day taste that much sweeter.
