A Week With Grandpa

I love my dad. He is one of my favorite people in the world and always has been. I haven't seen him much in the last five years and it really makes me sad. Since I moved to the twin cities, though, he has visited me once a year and I, of course, try to make him home once or twice a year. The phone calls in between visits have always been non-existant and any other form of communication has been slim. But since Josiah was born things have gotten much better. The visits are still rare (mostly due to the distance issue), but he will at least call every 2 or 3 months.

This week with grandpa was fantastic for Josiah. He really loves his grandpa Jim and I don't know why. I'm not saying that my dad is difficult to love, quite the opposite really. I just don't understand why out of all of the people in the world Josiah has formed this special bond with him. Josiah loves all his grandparents, but since the very beginning my dad is the only person who has been able to scoop him up and take him away without him ever being upset.

On Sunday we spent Easter with my dad and paternal grandparents over at my aunts house. My aunt has this amazing house just out in the country. She has a barn and a huge yard with trees and flowers and fake cows everywhere. Josiah thought it was the neatest place he'd ever been. As soon as my dad showed up he told Josiah, "lets go for a walk," and he was more than excited to go walking with grandpa. It was so fun to see them together and to see the joy on Josiah's face when he realized that Grandpa was finally here! (we'd been talking about it all week). The rest of that day was spent with the two of them playing blocks and dominos together inside, followed by another walk outside.

The rest of the week wasn't nearly as magical. My dad had an agenda. Things to buy, places to go, etc. But while shopping he did manage to make time to sing and play and talk to his grandson. We even went to the zoo and I loved watching as Josiah preferred to hold Grandpa's hand while walking instead of mine. During the downtime and at meals when my dad was here I couldn't believe how happy Josiah was to show him all his toys and the things he could do with them. I almost broke into tears when Josiah continuously begged to sit on grandpa's lap.

I wish my dad would have been here longer, and I wish that he wouldn't have had so much he wanted to do. It would have been nice to just go to a park together or sit out in the back yard and play. But seeing how much they truly love each other made me so thankful and proud that I gave Josiah my dad's name as his middle name.