Annie-isms

My granddaughter does more than her share of making me laugh.  Her "inquiring mind" is always on overdrive.  While the passage of time has made me forget some of her funnier moments, I chose to write about two in particular that made me laugh incessantly.  Both Annie-isms had different effects on me, as you will see when you read them.

The first, which I've shared with many of my friends, came on the heels of a purchase of some card games. I bought my grandchildren boxed games of Go Fish, Crazy Eights, and Old Maid.  My oldest grandson has become very much into playing cards and he and I had just finished up a rousing game of Old Maid.  Neither of us wanted to get stuck with that old battleax!  Who wants to end a game with an old maid in their hands?  It was nearly bedtime and the kids were asked to put away the cards and get ready for bed.  Annie volunteered to pick up the various boxes of cards and while putting them back into the boxes she paused for a moment and looked my way.  A big smile came over her face and she ran over to me shouting, "Grandma! Grandma!  This looks just like you!"  To my chagrin, she was holding the Old Maid card and was proudly pointing out my apparent strong resemblance to the dowdy, grey-bun-wearing Old Maid.  Talk about a reality check for me.  I laughed it off, as any good grandmother would do when their beaming 4 year old granddaughter compares them to the old hag on the card's face, but I still haven't gotten over it and for some reason I find myself looking more critically at the face I see in my 10X Magnifier mirror each morning.  Note to self:  get rid of that God-forsaken mirror!

The second Annie-ism came this week.  She was watching TV and abruptly turned to me and came to sit on my lap.  She began studying my face and then mused, "Grandma, are you going to get old like Grandma Lores [my mom, who is 90 years old and bears the wrinkles of a life filled with love, loss, and time]?  I told her that I hoped I would live as long as Grandma Lores.  She continued to study MY face and then asked, "Grandma?  Is your face going to change?"  I knew where she was headed, wondering if I would get wrinkles on my face too.  I needed to ask why she wanted to know this, so I fell for it, fully expecting another reference to that dreaded Old Maid!  I patiently explained to her that yes, my face would change, and then readied myself for her response.  She looked at me and with her sweetest smile replied, "I don't want your face to change because I like it the way it is!"  Birds began to sing, the sun smiled down from the Heavens, butterflies danced outside my window, all was good and right with the world.  Note to Old Maid: not this time, honey!