Grandparents’ Day

Today was Grandparents’ Day at Addie’s school. I will never complain about being 45 minutes from her but . . we had to get up at 4:45 this morning to do the things we had to do here (Oscar, Rita, Boots, stop by a friend’s and take care of her cat) and get to Chad’s by 7:00 to meet Nicole, then get Addie to school on time.

I wouldn’t miss going to Grandparents’ Day unless there was absolutely no way I could go. Addie had two full sets of grandparents there but there were some kids who had no one. I understand it . . I’ve gone to every one of Addie’s Grandparents’ Days and it probably says a lot about my over the top insanity that I would drive 10 hours to spend 30 minutes in her classroom but I could . . so I did. Some may not have grandparents, some live too far away, some work, some my be ill . . who knows why there were no grandparents for some kids . . but several of them looked sad. Maybe walking into the classroom alone while many of the other kids had grandparents there made them sad .. I have no idea the emotions they felt but this was the first year I’ve noticed that some of the kids without grandparents looked sad. I don’t know. I just wish everyone could have had at least one grandparent there. They now call the day “Grandfriends Day” and that’s probably to be more inclusive for those who don’t have grandparents who are able/willing to attend.

Addie and I walked down to the library where the Book Fair was being held and Vince stayed in the classroom visiting with Nicole’s parents. There was one little boy who tugged at Vince’s heart. Vince was talking to the little boy and Vince said “Does Addie talk to you?” (she sits near him) and he said “No, and I don’t care!” On the way home, I asked Vince if that was what he said and Vince said “Yes, but I could tell that he did care.” Vince said “I wish I had taken that boy down to the Book Fair and given him money to spend.” Y’all! That is so unlike Vince and to know how sad that little boy must have been in order for Vince to feel that way made me cry. Vince said the only reason he didn’t do it was because he wasn’t sure how the parents would feel knowing someone did that.

Addie found a Harry Potter book she wanted. As we were checking out, there were books up on the counter with teachers’ names on them. Addie saw her teacher’s name and asked what they were and the lady said the teachers made a wish list of books they would like to have for their classroom. I had stuck money in my pocket and didn’t have enough for Addie’s book and one for the teacher so I asked her to run back to her room and ask Vince for $4. On her way out, she ran into her other grandpa and he gave her money to buy herself a book. I told her I’d stay with her while she picked out a book but she wanted to get both books that her teacher had on her wish list. With the extra few dollars Vince gave her, what I had left from the money in my pocket and the money from her other grandpa, she was able to get the extra two books that were on her teacher’s wish list (one was $5 and one was $12), she was so proud to give those books to her teacher.

I told Vince she could have chosen to spend all the money on herself and it made me really happy that she made the decision to buy the books for her teacher vs. buying more books that she wanted for herself, then seeing the heartfelt gratitude from her teacher and how that made Addie smile and feel . . priceless.