Things and Ways to Love

There are so many things I love.  I love that my gramerlings and adopted family get to experience, here on Playdate, things that they really may otherwise never experience, or certainly not weekly.  How often is the age span in any situation 8 weeks to 92 years?  How often is it okay to just stay in your swim suit all day, paint yourself, sling mud, throw rocks, handle chickens and rabbits and crawdads, tadfrogs and mentos ( Buggs word for minnows)?  I love blessing them with such experiences and am thankful to the Good Lord for the space, energy and time to do it.
I miss though the one on one time.  When my grandparenting career began, I had two little fellows that I followed around and did everything they wanted to do. I didn't have to worry, because they were always with me. I absolutely loved listening to their conversations and frequently wrote them letters telling them all about their wee selves.  Now, I find with a chorus of 14 plus little voices, I can barely remember my own name at the end of Playdate, much less any of the many conversations I listened to.   My mental energy and focus goes to constantly counting heads to be sure no one has wandered off.

Recently I just had Bean and Bugg and we did some experimenting with water colors.

It was so fun to watch them playing around with mixing colors.  Art is slowly being removed from our public schools and I so want to give them these kinds of opportunities.

When Bean mixed this red he gasped and exclaimed, "Look, it's velvet. I made red velvet."  And so he had and my heart sang. 

Missy Bugg wanted to make Mommy a rose.

All three of us painted and discussed our art and discoveries and I loved it.

It just doesn't seem like there are enough hours in the day to have a lot of these experiences.  I might be willing to trade multiple short term sessions with Playdate, but I fear I wouldn't get any takers.  I tried to talk to Bean about doing things a bit differently and he claimed that he just couldn't even consider such a notion.  I guess I know what he loves.

What do you love?