If my favorite snack before bedtime is ice-cream (and it is), then my favorite morning breakfast cereal is Raisin Bran.
If I get a chance to eat it.
If she sees me heading from the kitchen to my worktable with cereal in hand, then there will be the patter of little bare feet following.
I know the drill.
So does she.
I push my computer aside, she reaches up her little arms, and in my lap, she’ll sit and eat all the raisins.
Not the milk. Not the bran. Just the raisins.
Kind of like a treasure hunt. One at a time.
Sometimes though she’ll push them below the surface of the milk with her index finger and then, holding her little chubby hands palms up and with a shrug of her shoulders, she’ll say, “Where’d they go?” Or something like that.
But, bless her heart, occasionally, for every three raisins she discovers and places in her mouth, she’ll take and load up my spoon and hold it, suspended above the bowl, waiting for grandpa to take it as it’s my turn.
To eat my own cereal.
The advertisement on the box said “plump, juicy raisins in every spoonful.”
Not mine.
She picks those out before handing me the spoon.
She gets the raisins. I get the bran. We share.
What a treasure.
Evelyn Twomey says
I think you should be voted “GRANDPA OF THE YEAR. Or maybe you already have been..
David Anderson says
Thanks Evelyn. I share that title with the other grandpa of these little ones.
Joseph Boyle says
David,
Thanks for sharing your cute and loving story. If is enjoyable to have a fresh, positive, and loving story in height of our times which exposes us to negative and controversial stories on a daily basis.
Enjoy your time, “Grandpa”. My grandchildren are pushing 11 and 14. They are too big to sit on my lap. Their hands are no longer chubby, but they eat the entire contents of the cereal bowl, milk, raisins, and bran.
The good news is they are helping me drop back down towards my high school weight.
Joseph Boyle
David Anderson says
Thank you Joe. Just yesterday my wife surprised me with a box of my favorite cereal promoting, in big, bold letters (and pictures) “Extra Raisin Raisin Bran.” So now I’ll get some too. If I’m fast enuff.