granddaughters | Bobbi Ann Johnson Holmes

Sorting through posts from a now defunct blog, I came across this entry I’d written on February 10, 2013. I decided to share.

I resist the temptation to re-sock my granddaughter’s feet after she tugs off the knit footwear. It is amazing she kept them on all night and throughout breakfast. The fact we are in Kodiak, Alaska in winter, and it is snowy outside, makes no difference to her. After all it is warm in her house.

I try to convince her slippers are more comfortable than the pretty dress shoes she insists on wearing, yet I quickly realize my notion of comfort is not hers. When I arrived, she was wearing a red patent leather pair, each shoe adorned with a red ribbon rose. One of the gifts I brought her from Arizona was a glittery purple pair, which immediately became her new favorite. A couple of days ago her Grandma Marcie sent her pink patent leather shoes with bows. The pink ones are now her favorite. After all, they go with her tutu.

Did I mention she loves wearing a tutu? After she removes her socks mid-morning, off comes her pants. Oh, she leaves on her underpants, but any leggings or outer pants are removed. If given a choice of what to wear in the morning, chances are she will ask for a dress. Yet, she feels a tutu is a suitable alternative.

My granddaughter is just three months shy of her third birthday. As she clomps around the house in her pretty patent leather shoes – no socks – wearing a colorful clean knit top, a tattered pink tutu, with cartoon Disney underwear peeking out from beneath the ragged netting fabric, she tells me she is a princess, and I believe her.

Our granddaughter has quite the fascination for princesses. I suspect she has every Disney book and movie pertaining to princesses. She has the Disney princess figurine collection and the larger dolls. She can tell you which one is Belle, Ariel, Beauty, Jasmine and a few others I am not familiar with. She can spend hours chattering away with her princess dolls, speaking for them as she creates her own imaginary world of make believe.

I suppose there was a time in the 70s I might have been horrified at the thought of my granddaughter having such a fascination with princesses. Yet, I am probably more a feminist today than I was 40 years ago, and frankly, I see nothing wrong with her love of all things princesses.

As long as my daughter and son-in-law haven’t signed her up for Toddlers & Tiaras (something they would never do) I see nothing wrong with Addison’s princess phase. I learned over thirty years ago—when our son was a toddler—that young children simply like what they like.

I am not concerned our granddaughter will grow up believing the only way to find true happiness is by snaring Prince Charming. I suspect the examples set by her parents will have more impact on how she views life than a make-believe cartoon world.

Our daughter’s family recently returned from Kodiak, Alaska after living there for three years. Her husband is in the Coast Guard and was transferred back to California. Don and I planned to drive up and see them last week—them meaning our daughter, son-in-law and our two beautiful grandchildren, Addison (4 years) and Evan (17 months).

Plans changed abruptly when my husband went in for emergency surgery on June 6, due to an infection that settled in his artificial knee. Since then we’ve been housebound in Arizona as he undergoes 6-weeks of intense in-home IV treatment.

Yesterday my daughter posted a video on my Facebook wall. It’s our granddaughter who has been crying…crying for Grandma Bobbi. In the video when our daughter asks Addison why she has been crying, our granddaughter says, “’Cause I wanna see her at her house and have a tea party…”

I will confess, I have watched that video more than a dozen times already. You see, Addison and I have an honored tradition of having tea parties. For me it started with her mother, when Elizabeth was just a little girl. We’d dress up in fancy hats and I’d bring out the good china and we’d enjoy a beverage that wasn’t quite tea, but was poured from a tea pot.

Last Christmas the kids were able to come to Havasu for New Years. While visiting, Addison had several tea parties, not just with Grandma Bobbi – but with Grandma Bobbi and her GGs – code name for my mother and Don’s – the great-grandmas.

For this grandma, tea parties are a special tradition–one I hope Addison doesn’t soon outgrow.

Photo: Granddaughter Addison with GG Caroline (My mom)