Hi Harold, I loved reading about your experiences with your grandchildren. I have happy recollections of my own grandchildren as they were growing up and I agree they are God's blessings. This was a long time ago however as they are now all adults. I now have six great grand children but regretfully I do not see them very often. Five of them live too far awaay for me to have any serious relationships with. Tthe youngest lives not too far away but is only eleven months old. I hpe I live long enough to enjoy some happy expeiences with her. Barnabas, who lives in Eastbourne has started school for the firsr time this week. He was born prenaturely and suffered problems after he was born but is now a happy robust little boy. I was able to spend some time with him during the summer and we got on fine. He observed me using a walking stick to get about and having a bit of a struggle gettimg out of a chair. He looked at me gravely and said "There must be something wrong with your bones, but I will help you". After this he took hold of my hand every time I got up to move and escorted me whrever I wanted to go. Visiting a garden centre he held on to my three wheeled walking aid to guide me around. I managed to escape when his father took him to look at the fish swimming in the onamental pond. A happy experience but different fromthe ones use to enjoy with grand children many years ago when I was an active participating grandma. Elizabeth -----Original Message----- From: harold kitching - Email Address: harold.ÀÇkitching01@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent On: 10/09/2012 21:44 Sent To: guide chat - Email Address: guide.chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [guide.chat] Subject: The Gift of Grandparenting Every Grandparent can testify that if someone would have just told them that grandchildren were so much fun, the choice would have been made to have them first! Grandma was in the bathroom, putting on her makeup, under the watchful eyes of her young granddaughter as she'd done many times before. After she applied her lipstick and started to leave, the little one said, 'But Gramma, you forgot to kiss the toilet paper good-bye!' My young grandson called the other day to wish me Happy Birthday. He asked me how old I was, and I told him, '62.' He was quiet for a moment, and then he asked, 'Did you start at 1?' Grandparents have one thing God doesn't have: GRANDCHILDREN!!!! After putting her grandchildren to bed, a grandmother changed into old slacks and a droopy blouse and proceeded to wash her hair. As she heard the children getting more and more rambunctious, her patience grew thin. Finally, she threw a towel around her head and stormed into their room, putting them back to bed with stern warnings. As she left the room, she heard the three-year-old say with a trembling voice, 'Who was THAT?' A grandmother was telling her little granddaughter what her own childhood was like: 'We used to skate outside on a pond. I had a swing made from a tire; it hung from a tree in our front yard. We rode our pony. We picked wild raspberries in the woods.' The little girl was wide-eyed, taking this all in. At last she said, 'I sure wish I'd gotten to know you sooner!' In the car my four-year-old granddaughter asked me why I was wearing the brightly colored scarf I had on. "I thought it would make my blue suit look much prettier," I said. After a moment's consideration, she replied sympathetically, "It didn't work, did it?" I didn't know if my granddaughter had learned her colors yet, so I decided to test her. I would point out something and ask what color it was. She would tell me and was always correct. It was fun for me, so I continued. At last she headed for the door, saying sagely, 'Grandpa, I think you should try to figure out some of these yourself!' When my grandson asked me how old I was, I teasingly replied, 'I'm not sure.' 'Look in your underwear, Grandpa,' he advised. 'mine says I'm four to six.' A second grader came home from school and said to her grandmother, 'Grandma, guess what? We learned how to make babies today.' The grandmother, more than a little surprised, tried to keep her cool. 'That's interesting, ' she said, 'how do you make babies?' 'It's simple,' replied the girl. 'You just change 'y' to 'i' and add 'es'.' Proverbs 17:6 God intends for our grandchildren to be our crowning glory and for our children to be proud of us, their parents.