Grandparenting 101, or What Have I Gotten Us Into?

Tomorrow will be a first for us and for the granddaughters. Darling Daughter and her Hairy Husband are bringing the girls for a sleepover at grandma and grandpa's house while they go to Nashville, TN for a concert. The girls will only spend one night at our house but this will be the first time Little Sister will sleep here without her mother and her milk supply. Little Sister is 19 months old but she has never spent more than a few hours apart from Mama. So, we expect initial excitement, then panic, frustration, a lot of crying, and finally exhausted sleep.

Or, it could go swimmingly well and we won't have any trouble at all. (Hah!)

Did I mention what a temper Little Sister has, or how long she can sustain ear-piercing screaming when she gets frustrated? She got her nickname "head banger" because that's what she tends to do when she's in the middle of one of her temper tantrums. We just have to ensure that she doesn't hurt herself in the process. (The last time I watched her for a couple of hours she cried for 20 minutes straight until she fell into a stupor all the while continuing to hiccup in her sleep.)

Pictured above is Darling Daughter and Little Sister who sports a great bedhead hairdo after just waking up one morning at grandma's.

No doubt we will do everything humanly possible to amuse, with plenty of food and drink inbetween, with TeeVee, every Disney DVD and video in grandma's arsenal, books, dolls, Legos, Tinkertoys, Go Fish, swinging and sliding outside, playing with the cats, running around in the yard, and maybe going to the park or Mickey Dee's as a diversion.

We expect Darling Daughter and Hairy Husband to return some time Sunday afternoon. It's only a two-hour or so drive from Nashville, so they should be pretty rested if they make several rest stops along the way. We, however, should be ready to collapse as soon as they walk in the door.