C came for a sleepover this past weekend. Many parts of the time with her reminded me alot of the sleepovers that I have had with her cousins, J & J. Although I really like these times together, I always realize after they get to my place, that I haven't thought out the activities or the meals that we'll share in our short time together.

This past weekend was a good example. When C got to my place, it was dinnertime. Most of the food in my place is high fiber, alot of Amy's Organic and Vegetarian ethnic dinners, and not really kid food. Now C's got a great cook for a dad and she's used to a large variety of foods, but the Indian Mattar Paneer or Samosa Wraps just didn't seem appropriate and got a response from her "I want chicken nuggets."

I learned quickly that although I know where the closest Caribou Coffee place is to my house, I haven't got a clue where the closest McDonald's is to my house. Plan B was a quick trip to the 7/11 around the corner to buy frozen chicken nuggets, frozen mac & cheese and a can of green beans...there, dinner for 2! (Of course, I *did* have the Ben & Jerry's Phish Food for dessert, so I was somewhat prepared -- at least that was my justification when buying it "hey, you never know when I'll have grandkids over and they'll *need* this ice cream, to make them happy").

Anyway, after dinner the play began. C found the dental floss that I keep close by and the first fun she chose to have was flossing her teeth. Then it was on to more fun things as she decided to get out the kitty nail clippers (kept near the dental floss) and started to examine the bits of kitty nails that I lazily had placed in the container that houses the clippers.

It got better from here, as it was time to paint our own nails (toes and fingers), but the stash of polish that I had to offer contained 8 bottles of 'ho-house' red polish and only one bottle of a color suitable for C to paint her own nails with and to lavishly apply to mine.

Feeling at this point like I'm just not the MaDear that I want to be, I asked C if she didn't want to go out and do something fun. She just smiled and said "I like it here...let's just stay here." Even my offer to get MaDear's Toy Box out with a treasure trove of toys purchased at the dollar store didn't seem to interest her much, but she did enjoy exploring the things once she decided that she'd exhausted all the fun things from my own stash of stuff.

It was then time for bed and I got her "comfy bed" all ready for her, and placed it near my own bed. She pleaded with me to watch the Golf channel (she'd learned this from her cousin J) or the Weather channel (she's learned this from her other cousin J). Instead we decided to read a book (I do have a pretty good assortment of children's books--thank you Amazon!) and we ended the evening with that instead.

As we were falling off to sleep, she looked at me and said, "I love you MaDear." This was about the same time I was thinking that I really needed to plan more, buy more, do more when my grandkids come to visit.

These sweet words brought me back to visits with my own grandmothers and the things I remember about them. It was Grandma F, carrying around that dish towel wherever she went and dusting off any surface that was in sight...it was Gannie sweeping up piles of hair off the floor in the beauty shop that she owned and how proud she was that she owned her own business (a female entrepreneur of the 50s), it was the quarter that Kay gave me to spend "any way that I want" in the 5 and Dime...it was the pride in their voices and the happy look on their face when they introduced me to their friends - - "this is my granddaughter Jill."

I'll never get the grandma of the year award, but I've got a feeling that maybe their memories of time with me will be unique in their own special way.