Poems for My Young Granddaughters

Sophia has spent her life as an ex-pat in Europe and Asia due to her father’s work. It is amazing to think of the experiences that this child has accumulated over her short life span. She has walked with elephants in Thailand, been up close and personal with monkeys in Bali, survived rides in tuk tuks in Cambodia, and surfed in Vietnam. That doesn’t include the scores of European cathedrals and Buddhists temples she has visited. Still, she is just a little girl who delights in riding her bicycle around our neighborhood and picking strawberries at the local farms when she visits Connecticut. She embraces each experience with enthusiasm and childhood delight. I hope she will remember as an adult her visits with her grandparents as well as her worldwide travels

Swan Boats and Carousels in the park

Fireworks at the beach after dark

Learning to ride a bike on the road

Talking with Gram in our special code

Making muffins and cookies to share with all

Bounce U with Elise and scarcely a fall

Lots of playgrounds where to play

Something new everyday

Whales and seals, and turtles, too

Never a lack of things to do

But best of all, the riding stable

And finding out I really am able

To trot and to post and to guide my horse

Proud Mama and Daddy were watching, of course

Grandparents, aunties and cousins galore

So many memories, maybe next year even more!

Elise who was born in Europe, moved to Asia as an infant. China has been her home. Visiting the United States in the summer is a special treat. It is hard to top the experiences she has had in her travels throughout the world, but she seems to find great pleasure in very mundane activities that any 3 year old would enjoy such as running through a sprinkler, grabbing the hose and spraying her grandparents! Watching a chipmunk through the kitchen window, helping Gram mix pancake batter, or rolling down a small hill in the back yard….. all bring a big smile to her face.

I am a ballet dancer in my pink tutu

I like to dress like Katie Perry, too!

I climb and jump and love the slide,

But the very best is the carousel ride.

At the playground I wear my gummy socks

And at the beach we put shells in a box

But when I gaze up to the sky

I love to see airplanes pass by

The moon is up there and I see

All shapes of clouds staring down at me.

One day at Gram’s I looked through the glass

And saw a tiny lion running through the grass

There are so many things I like to see and do

One day I hope you will come with me, too

My father read to me about adventures in the Amazon, the Galapagos Islands and Patagonia. He encouraged me to embrace the world, and to travel more than he. So, I joined the Peace Corps, to my parents dismay, and volunteered in Colombia, South America.

As a parent, I encouraged my children to explore the world and took them on trips to a number of places in the United States, Europe, Canada, Colombia and the Caribbean.

Now, as a grandparent, I wish my children lived within 10 miles of our house so that we could see them often!

Our little granddaughters have experienced so very much of this world, I wonder what they will do as adults and where they will send THEIR children……space travel perhaps?