Breaking the Rules

We drove about one hour away from home yesterday afternoon to visit with my children's Grandma, dear Husband's mom, for Mother's Day.

Grandma has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's' Disease. Some days she recognizes her grandchildren and some days she doesn't. Yesterday was a good day. She and the kids spent the bulk of the visit looking at old pictures of her and their dad from days of old. Back when their old man wasn't old at all. They laughed when they saw him smiling as a baby...he rarely smiles unless we trick him into it (which has become a fun pastime during long trips), so catching unguarded moments from him at any age feels like a victory!

Just to be clear, dear Husband is not an angry or mean man, per se, he's just a serious kinda guy. He tells people he was born old. It's just who he is (although I suspect he likes it when we trick those smiles out of him).

Anyway, the day grew late and we all said our goodbyes. With Grandma, each goodbye feels like the most important goodbye for the kids because it might be the last time she says their name. Tonight she said their name, hugged them and asked them to come back and see her next week. It's great when it ends on a nice note like that, but it still leaves the kids a little at loose ends. They're 15 and 18 now and want to be mature about the whole thing, but they miss that sheltered feeling of protection they were lucky enough to experience for most of their lives when they had both sets of grandparents and their parents doting on them all the time.

On the way out of town, we were all a bit quiet. We stopped off at McDonald's to grab a soda for the drive home and decided to walk in and order so we could stretch our legs. We entered the restaurant and it was totally empty of customers. It was so quiet in there, which is rare for any McD's! We ordered our sodas (ok, we ordered a snack, too!) and were waiting for our order to be filled when I noticed my grown-up kids sharing a glance and staring wistfully at the giant playplace sitting totally empty before them. The one at this particular Mickey D's is a huge one that's not very old. They were only able to play in it once before they were too old to participate in the fun.

In a moment of naughty weakness I told them, in my most serious voice, that they had exactly three minutes to get into that climbing maze, go through the whole thing and find their way out. Go! They looked at me like they misunderstood me. I told them they were to remember they were big, so to be careful, but they now only had 2 minutes and 45 seconds. GO! They looked at each other with shocked grins and took off!

For two-and-a-half minutes my kids were like tiny mice hunting for that elusive piece of cheese!

When they found their way out, their entire countenances were uplifted! They are still talking about their fun dash through kiddyland this morning!

We broke the rules. No one got hurt. Two really great young adults were able to experience that perfectly safe bliss that only little ones have...for two minutes and thirty seconds.

I'm so glad we were naughty!