The best grandma moments

My best grandma moment with my own Mema was this: holding up a broken fig newton that I had stuck back together and asking her if it was broken or not. I remember doing that because I did it over and over and over and over again. Sometimes the cookie was whole and sometimes I had broken it and carefully reassembled it to look whole and every single time, she would make a guess. Who in the world has the patience to play such a ridiculous game but a grandmother?

I find that most really good grandma moments are like that - mundane to the point of being utterly forgettable, except that they define what makes a grandma so very good at her job and are therefore exactly what memories are made of.

With Sydney and her grandmas, I keep passing by these moments, not bothering to get out the camera or make a blog post because it isn't until months later that I realize how important they were. Sydney's Nana keeps tissues and lotion by her chair so that she doesn't have to get up to get these staples. Now, every time we go to Nana's house, Sydney has to blow her nose seven times and apply lotion to her face at least twice. I don't even know what that lotion smells like, but I bet years from now, without knowing why, that scent will make Sydney think of Nana.

Speaking of smells, the game that Sydney and Gram played last time we saw her went something like this: they had three scented candles and would hold them one at a time up to their noses to sniff. Every single time either of them smelled a candle, both would crack up into uproarious laughter. No one else got the joke, I think, but what a perfect example of a grandma moment!

It was thinking of all of these things when my mother came to visit that prompted me to take more pictures of the little things that she and Sydney did together. I don't know which of these moments will be the ones that Sydney remembers fondly, and I guess that's the point. The best grandma moments are so simple that you totally take them for granted as they happen.

Shopping: My mom and I do a lot of shopping when we get together. This time, we went to the grand opening of a Jo-Anne's, which is a fabric and craft store. Normally Sydney absolutely positively hates fabric shopping. In fact, she often bursts into tears at the sight of the fabric section of Hobby Lobby, but somehow the whole experience was bearable with her Grandma with her.

So Cute: Okay, this one I don't get. Grandma would ask Sydney, "Are you cute?" and then they would both put a finger to their cheek. Really, I don't get it. But I'm also sure my mother didn't get the whole fig newton game.

Holding Grandma's Hand: Every single time we got in and out of the car, I would ask Sydney if she wanted to hold my hand or Grandma's hand. The answer was the same every single time.

Arts and Crafts: One of Sydney and Grandma's shared interests is coloring. They almost always do some sort of coloring every time they see each other. In fact, I think Sydney's first coloring book experience was with her Grandma.

Playing Outside: Grandma really just sat and watched Sydney play with her sandbox and her slides. Occasionally, Sydney would chat with Grandma, but mostly, she just liked having her sitting there.