I am blessed with the opportunity to regularly spend time with my grandchildren, and when I do, I always bring my giggle kit with me filled with different activities for them to engage in. This last time I made sure to include the newly purchased play-doh which had been a hit at our family gathering.
I pulled out the Play-Doh and the kids played with it for a bit, but within a half hour, it was all put away and they were ready to move on to the next thing. We opened up the Giggle Kit, and Odin requested the toys. UH-OH! I had not put that box back in, so I was there without the little cars he loves to play with. Thinking quickly, I suggested we make cars out of play-doh for him to play with instead. He was excited about that idea... so I built the first car. He wanted another.... and another... and another.... When he handed me a blob of red dough, I suggested we make a ladybug with it, then I added wheels and suddenly we were creating cars that have never been invented. Of the 20 or so cars we built, we had a ladybug car, a frog car, a hot dog car, a hamburger car, a lizard car, a snake car, a marshmallow car, a police car, and so many more.
Before long I introduced to him how to blend colors to make more colors. We made orange which built a carrot car, and then we made brown with built a chocolate chip car. He loved blending colors and didn't want to stop for lunch!
I have never seen an activity consume a 4 year old for so long. He didn't want to quit, and when we finally called it done, he cried and cried and cried. Thankfully we were able to distract him, and he settled down - poor little fellow. His little sister was in on it too, but she did a lot of playing in the back yard, hugging the dog, singing songs with actions, and so forth as well.
It was a good day made even better by adding my grown children into the mix. I got to visit with my Charity for several hours (she helped me calm and distract Odin when we came inside). Did you know she made the papers this week?
She said she was soaked to the bone and when they took the picture she was thinking something funny, so she looks like she's loving being so wet! But that's my girl, she makes life an adventure, even when it pours other stuff on and around her.
I also got to visit my Melodee and her family. She showed me her garden and told me all about her current courses. Malika had just woke up, and was a little groggy, and it took a bit for her to have those alert, smiling responses that I so enjoy.
I love that even when things don't go as planned or expected, there are things we can do to find joy - kind of like Charity smiling in the rain. I mean, even though her shoes were full of water, she was still smiling!!! Odin would have preferred real cars - at least that's what was expected, but I believe that the play doh cars actually occupied him longer and engaged him more deeply. He LOVED creating them! Even little Malika was able to find some smiles in her lingering sleepiness, and when her daddy got home, she broke into almost giggles. I believe that life is as good as we make it, and when we do the best we can with what we have, we can also discover that joy accompanies that choice. I am so thankful for the joyful interactions I have with my children.
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