Two days before I left on my trip to Austin my mother flew in from the Midwest. She came for two reasons, both greatly appreciated. My trip was very close to my daughters birthday, for which my mom comes into town each year anyway. But the timing, the early arrival was due to the fact that Mike and I were both heading to SXSW leaving no one here to care for the almost birthday girl.
Here enters Nana.
Of all the grandparents, and K has a complete set of 4, her bond seems strongest with my mom. Now I’m not K or my mom so I can’t say for certain what’s behind the closeness of their relationship, but the two of them are a sight to see. My mother’s complete adoration and affection for her only grandchild is not the only thing that drives her closeness to K. I think it’s also that neither my brother nor I ever had a close relationship with our grandparents. There were many reasons, all of them valid but none of them needing to be discussed here. I know that she doesn’t want that to be the case with K. And K, well she and my mom seem to have a lot in common. Aside from their love of arts and crafts and Brendan Fraser there’s also slightly twisted evil sense of humor that they share and K revels in it.
That’s why when I left town without her for the first since she was born, we asked my mom to come and stay with her.
All I expected, all I asked from her, was to take care of K. Oh, and to hem my new jeans and make all the final preparations for her birthday party. And to clean my kitchen. Oh and bake a birthday cake. But that’s it. Oh… wait no. Laundry. I had her do laundry too. Oh and to take care of Morgan while I was gone. And…. well never mind.
My point is that mainly I just asked her to take care of K for me.
But the day after she arrived, as I was doing the final pack on my suitcase my mom handed me a small baggy of safety pins. She’d used them when she hemmed my jeans because she couldn’t find my straight pins anywhere and when she was done she packaged them up and gave them to me. She told me to pack them just in case. “You never know when you might need them” she said.
And so I put them in the bag with my leatherman, my extra gum and my rose scented bodywash. All things I couldn’t leave behind. There they were promptly forgotten until a few moments ago.
When I unpacked it was in a heap. I just needed to get it done and get back to normal as soon as possible and so when I emptied the bathroom bag the safety pins made their way into, I didn’t give them a second look as I put them into the train case that holds my makeup and odds and ends. But as s I opened it after my shower today to put away my glasses I saw them there, wedged between a compact and my powder brush and couldn’t help but smile.
I may have asked her to come all that way to take care of my child… but in truth she made the trip to take care of her own.
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
