I would love to go back and travel the road not taken, if I knew at the end of it I’d find the same set of grandkids. – Robert Brault

I’ve spent a lot of time on this blog talking about how much I loved my grandparents – particularly my grandmother. My love for her has really inspired me to play a significant role in the lives of my grandkids because I want them to feel about me like I felt about Grammie.

These past couple of weeks when I have been lucky enough to spend so much time with my grandkids has caused me to think about why I believe grandparents are so important in a person’s – and particularly a child’s – life.

Perfect love does not come until the first grandchild. – Welsh proverb

My sister Bec recently told me her theory. She believes one of the most important gifts that a grandparent can give a grandchild is the gift of listening. Parents of young kids are so, so busy these days. They work, they volunteer, they grocery shop, they exercise, they worship, they haul their kids back and forth to soccer practice and basketball practice and ballet and gymnastics. They attend games and meets and recitals. They help with homework and practice spelling words. In between, they try to have a little time to spend with each other. So they listen the best that they can, but oftentimes it’s at the same time that they’re concentrating on cooking dinner or trying to finish an email that has to go to one of their coworkers by 8 o’clock the next morning.

So, theorizes my sister, we can listen – really listen – to what our grandkids tell us. It’s generally not going to be earth shattering or life changing. But oftentimes it’s going to be really, really funny, and terribly sweet.

“My friend is cray-cray,” Kaiya recently told me from the back seat of my car. Cray-cray. She’s 6.

“Where did you hear that word?” I asked her, figuring it was unlikely that she watches the Kardashians.

“From Barbie,” referring to a program that I think she watches on You Tube. Well, it’s better than

Dagny with a monster-sized donut (which she ate!).

the Kardashians, I guess. I have to confess that I laughed out loud.

But I also heard Dagny tell me she STINKS at spelling and she STINKS at math. “I stink at

everything,” she said disgustedly.

I told her that spelling and math might be difficult subjects for her but that is the reason she is going to school, and that both will get easier for her.

“And look how much you like science,” I said. “And you sang me a song that you wrote today, and it was very pretty. We all have different strengths and weaknesses.”

Few things are more delightful than grandchildren fighting over your lap. – Doug Larson

One of my favorite things about being a nana is that I can let the kids play with Play Doh or bubbles or help me cook and not have to worry about the mess. I don’t have to go to work tomorrow. I can clean my house. I don’t blame the parents a bit for not wanting to clean up such a mess. Let the kids make the mess at my house!

What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life. And, most importantly, cookies. – Rudy Giuliani

Kaiya and Mylee helped me make apple crisp the other day. We picked the apples from my trees, and I showed them how my old-fashioned apple peeler works. They both had a turn at it.

“I didn’t know you had this,” Kaiya said with amazement, as though she knows about every single thing I own. Well, apparently she thinks she does.

There was cinnamon sugar and apple peelings and oatmeal all over my counters and floors when they finished, but they had some kind of fun.

As long as our children are willing to entrust us with their children, I think we can make a difference in all of their lives. God bless all grandparents!

My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She’s 97 now, and we don’t know where the hell she is. – Ellen DeGeneres