Day Trip

I took the kids on a day trip to see their grandmother and two great-grandmothers today. There is something chaotic that happens when women in their 80s and babies come together. It must be the magnetic pulls of the opposite ends of the life spectrum that make things so crazy. Elderly women love babies and they love to get loud around babies. One of the most intriguing things to me is the things elderly women say, both to me and my children. When Lucy first met her great-grandmother Olga, she was propped on Olga's lap received 20 minutes of life advice. John and I eavesdropped on Olga's lessons to Lucy and heard these pearls of wisdom:

"Become a dancer before being great in sports. You will be great at both, though."

"Don't let anyone ever take advantage of you."

"Wear shorts and shirts, but know that it's okay to get dressed up once in a while."

"You can choose any color to be your favorite (after she listed a variety of colors); just be sure to pick one."

When I got to the house today Granny Olga was getting ready to head out for lunch with her two gal pals, both also over the age of 80. The trio has a weekly date of going to lunch and browsing through whichever stores they fancy. I imagine the lunch conversation being pretty entertaining, even though when I really think about it I can't imagine what they actually talk about. It can be a feisty group, so the topic of conversation could be almost anything.

Today one of Olga's friends took the liberty of grabbing my stomach. I was caught so off guard. She is in her 80s, so I guess she has the right? The dialogue leading up to the stomach grab went like this: "Oh, Shannen, the last time I saw you, you were bulging out pregnant. It must feel nice to have your body back to normal {stomach grab}. . . Well, at least closer to normal than it was."

Few things are more awkward than having an 80 year old woman grab your post baby stomach and confirm that things are not exactly normal in that region anymore.