Monday Smiles – 7/27/2015

Today, my grandkids started school in Herriman, Utah.  It is the first year since they have been going to school that my wife, Muri, and I have not taken them shopping for school supplies before the first day of school.  Savannah’s birthday was a week ago and it is the first time we’ve ever not been there.  There are probably other first times of the not so happy sort on the road ahead.  We are very fortunate to have the money and the flexibility to travel there, perhaps almost as much as we used to drive to Utah, but now we’ll be dealing with airline schedules and their new year-round school schedule.   There will no linger be 117 degree summer days to contend with as there were in AZ, but there will be winter cold for which we have little appropriate clothing.  We will not have a house nearby to be Nana and Papa’s house.  But we will build a new routine and we have wonderful memories of our old one.  This is one of them, a story about my oldest grandson at our Little House that I first told in a post called The Negotiator almost exactly 6 years ago when Reed was four.

Reed is destined for a future as a negotiator.   You can tell even at the age of four (“I’ll soon be five, then I’ll be big,” he’d tell you).    Regardless of what he’s told or asked to do, he feels it’s his job to discuss it with you, consider alternate options that you might have missed, and negotiate a different plan of action.  This behavior is easy to laugh at as a grandfather but drives his Mom and Dad crazy, though he’s so inventive that sometimes they’re covering their mouths to keep from laughing as they send him off to sit on time out.  Let me give you an example.

During our last visit to Arizona, Reed and his younger brother Maddux were staying at our Little House in the Desert.   My wife and Reed were drawing on a Magna-Doodle on the sofa while Maddux and I were looking at golfers through my birdwatching binoculars through the patio door.    When Reed noticed this, he came over and grabbed the binoculars out of his brother’s hands.    I took them back and handed them to Maddux.  This is the  conversation that ensued:

Me (Papa): Reed, you can’t just grab the binoculars.  If you want to use them, you’ll have to ask.  Say Papa,can I please use the binoculars?

Reed (after a thoughtful pause): Papa, I just can’t do that.

Papa (trying hard not to laugh):  Well, if you want to use the binoculars, you’ll have to ask.  Why can’t you do that?

Reed:  I just can’t.   I have binoculars at home and I use them all the time.   So I want to use yours.

Papa:  Then just ask like I said.

Reed:  I want to see the golfers, too.   Maddux is looking at them.  I want to.  He didn’t ask.

Papa: All you have to do is ask.

Reed:  That’s not fair.  Maddux has to share.

Papa:  He’ll share after you ask.   Just ask.

Reed: I can’t do that, Papa.  I can’t.

Papa (taking the binoculars and peering across the fairway):   Wow, there’s an elephant in the backyard over there.

Reed:  Papa, can I please use the binoculars?

The Little Negotiator is no match for the Big Negotiator … yet.

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Tags: family, grandchildren, humor, Monday smiles, nostalgia

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