Being a GIT

Some of our children have become PIT's - that's Parents-In-Training. It is so interesting watching them learn about new babies...... Mom, you have to dry her off BEFORE you put on the clean diaper..... or Mom, don't let her head bang into the faucet!..... or Mom, her fingers keep getting stuck when I try to pull her hand through her sleeve..... How did my children ever survive my PIT time? And how did I figure out that if you put your hand UP the sleeve and hold the baby's fingers as you ease the sleeve OVER your hand and hers that no fingers will be lost... It is hard to remember. After all, it WAS several centuries ago! So I listen to the instructions I'm given and try to do as I'm told. After all, I am now a GIT - that's Grandparent-In-Training. And I suppose part of that is to give support without taking over. To help Mom and Dad learn as painlessly as possible some of the tricks of the trade. Now, when I was a PIT, I remember that sleep times were very precious. I could get the laundry done or take out the trash or do the dishes or take a shower. But as a GIT, I find that I don't have any interest in doing anything but holding that warm little sleepy bundle and just watching the miracle of sleep in someone so small. I try to picture what her life will hold and what she will be like in a few years and I cannot even begin to see that far. And yet, Mark and I talk about how when we were PIT's, we were living in the moment, unable to stay awake enough to get beyond the next feeding. As GIT's, we have the advantage of the BIG picture. We can imagine Amelie as a 2 year old, a 10 year old, an adult.... because we have been there. And so, each moment of her beginnings is so very precious. We realize that these moments of sleep will be gone before we are ready and that we will never have them again. And there will always be laundry and dishes and trash. And so, I sit on the couch for hours, holding her warm little body in my arms and watch her little lips pucker and twitch..... her pale lids flutter .... and wonder what her little brain is thinking.  And I think about all the wonderful things we will do together.... as I wait and enjoy the moment.