{"id":1407,"date":"2019-02-11T11:18:07","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T16:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/?p=1407"},"modified":"2019-06-07T14:42:24","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T14:42:24","slug":"demystifying-detritus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/demystifying-detritus\/","title":{"rendered":"Demystifying Detritus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The grandchildren are growing up so quickly it almost hurts to watch it.\u00a0 With spring birthdays just weeks apart, Buddy and Sis are about to turn eight and six, respectively, and change seems to manifest even in the (luckily) small intervals between visits.\u00a0 Oh, you are taller AGAIN, I catch myself wailing in despair as I wrap a hug around Buddy\u2019s thin, lanky frame, as though I could expect him to slow his growth down himself, or he was somehow responsible for it.\u00a0 And look how neatly you write your name, I exclaim to Sis, with a touch of melancholy, so proud but aching, just an itty bit, for the little-kid days that are vanishing.<\/p>\n

Visits here at G-ma\u2019s house have, naturally, evolved to very different affairs.\u00a0 Gone are the spoon-only meals and the ubiquitous fear of (and prevention strategies for) potty accidents.\u00a0 There\u2019s no need to sweep the house for breakable objects that require removal to a higher plane or invisible location.\u00a0 I can leave them alone in a room for a few minutes while I change a load of laundry or provide a quick pee break for the dog, as long as I keep an ear tuned for the inevitable flare-ups of sibling bickering.\u00a0 Those blow in and then dissipate with eyepopping speed, and occasionally some intervention to prevent bodily injury is imperative.\u00a0 (As one of four children myself, I accept this dynamic as only a veteran can.)<\/p>\n

Entertainment and productive occupation are ever-new scenarios, as well.\u00a0 The kids are plenty old enough to contribute competent help at meal time and often request the opportunity.\u00a0 Imagine my pride (though I\u2019ve learned not to overreact to certain things in the moment) when Buddy approached me in the kitchen recently and said, \u201cIs there anything I can do to help?\u201d<\/p>\n

Cleaning up after play, on the other hand, is a skill which might lag just a tad behind others in their precocious development\u2014putting them on par with their peers for all history, one can only assume.\u00a0 They will do it when nudged, and unless tired or puny will apply themselves with minimal resistance, but there is one outcome that remains predictable as the months and visits fly by.\u00a0 It\u2019s like a signal, or a code for anthropologists, the ultimate provenance that they were here.<\/p>\n

They leave some small objects behind, or out of place, and I usually have no earthly idea what they are.<\/p>\n

I found this mildly scary-looking thing, for example, on the coffee table by the sofa about two visits ago.\u00a0What on earth could it be? Perhaps that’s the problem; it’s not of Earth as grandparents know it. \u00a0A body part of an alien being? \"IMG_7750\"<\/p>\n

Another time, there was a handful of these on the couch cushions and under the ottoman.\"IMG_7747\"<\/p>\n

The highly organized and efficient among us (and bless you, wherever you are; do drop by some time if you need work) would move swiftly to toss these objects and sweep the environment clean for the next round. Oddly, I cannot bring myself to do it. \u00a0Look at this cute little guy, for example; surely he has an important role of some sort? \u00a0Don’t you love the moustache?\"IMG_7749\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve taken to heaving them into a pottery pedestal bowl on my kitchen counter, a readily visible catch-all for things that need to migrate on, elsewhere. When the kids come next, I try to wedge an interlude in the conversation for identification and instructions on these items.\u00a0 Keep or toss?\u00a0Take home or leave here?\u00a0 Functional or broken?<\/p>\n

Why bother to wonder?\u00a0Any number of reasons, I guess.\u00a0Maybe I\u2019m hoping that reunion of child with object will solve some niggling puzzle, provide some bit of closure, restoring something they feared lost forever.\u00a0 More likely, they have a hopelessly curious grandmother, who really just wants to know what these items may tell me about their imaginations, their evolving skills.\u00a0 If the mystery objects turn out to be important, maybe it will stimulate an interesting conversation, and they\u2019ll remember I cared to ask.\u00a0 Maybe I\u2019ll learn something interesting. \u00a0Or unnerving.\u00a0 Or both.<\/p>\n

So, the pile of kid-visit detritus in the bowl stays, for now, changing in shape and composition with time and the seasons but still magnetic, like the dollar section at Target.\u00a0A rough projection would indicate that one item out of three is reclaimed from the bowl to the right place, over time.\u00a0 That\u2019s high enough odds for me.\u00a0 What\u2019s life without a little bit of mystery?<\/p>\n

\"IMG_7751\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The grandchildren are growing up so quickly it almost hurts to watch it.\u00a0 With spring birthdays just weeks apart, Buddy and Sis are about to turn eight and six, respectively, and change seems to manifest even in the (luckily) small intervals between visits.\u00a0 Oh, you are taller AGAIN, I catch myself wailing in despair as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7],"tags":[97,58,98,49,50],"class_list":["post-1407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grandkids","category-humor","tag-grandchildren-toys","tag-grandchildren-visits","tag-grandmother","tag-grandparents","tag-grandsons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}