We kept the grandson part of last weekend, including overnight on Saturday and took him home to Norman late Sunday afternoon.
Little Liam is 3½ and he’s busy from the time he gets here until we take him back to his parents unless he’s sleeping. He’s so much fun, though.
Pat and I have no problem sleeping on Sunday nights after having kept Liam on the weekend. I told Pat, though, it’s a good tired.
We’re privileged to be able to take care of him and allow our daughter Meghan and son-in-law Terry a little time together.
As Pat and I were returning the other night from Norman, it brought back lots of memories of all the time I spent with my grandparents on both sides.
Like Liam does, I always enjoyed it when I could be with my grandparents.
With my mother’s parents, I really had a lot of freedom when I was there. To some extent, the same was true with dad’s parents but they were older. I wasn’t nearly as close to my granddad McCormick for whatever reason. My grandmother McCormick was the one in charge there and that was fine. I was close to her.
One of the things I really enjoyed while staying with them though was walking down to a nearby Dairy Queen on summer evenings and getting a chocolate dip ice cream cone.
Dad and I lived with them during my kindergarten year. The school I attended half-day kindergarten during the mornings was just a long block away. But I frequently spent weekends and holiday periods with Doc and grandmother Lynch.
Dad remarried in July, 2½ years following my mother’s death, marrying my birth mother’s sister.
For nearly two years, we lived within about two blocks of Doc and grandmother Lynch and I walked to school during first and second grade.
When school was over for the day, I would walk to their house, or in bad weather my Uncle Ed or Aunt Barbara would pick me up, and take me.
I looked forward to it each day cause I got to see them and grandmother Lynch always had snacks.
I went fishing with Doc and Eddie fairly often and spent weekend nights. Even when we moved to the Village near the end of my second grade year I got to spend time on the weekends doing different things with them.
Since becoming a grandparent, I think I’m also more appreciative of the time I spent with my grandparents while growing up.
I always remained close to my grandparents, even in my adult years.