9.13 Weekend with Granny

The generation 9 Pruetts were so lucky to be born to the parents they were born to at the present time. No one can deny that they wished they would have been born earlier, but their presence was appreciated nonetheless. These are the only Pruett children to experience the joys of having two grandmothers! And, two fairly young grandmothers at that. Viviana was grandma, and Ciera was granny.

Ciera wasn’t able to come by much with her work schedule, so she hadn’t met the children yet. Jeannette had been keeping in touch with her to see when her next available off days were to see when the children could get together with her. Finally, one Sunday it happened. She rounded up her kiddos and sent them to her mother’s house for the day while she and Julian spent some much needed time alone.

When Ciera heard them outside, she ran out to meet them. “Hello, my babies!”

Juliette smiled and reached up to hug her. “Hi, granny!”

Ciera hugged and kissed all her grandbabies and was in grandma heaven. She stood there looking at them for a few moments, studying their faces and seeing who she thought they all looked like. She laughed to herself as she studied the twins’ outfits Jeannette had put together. Heh, and she says she’s not becoming a girly girl. Cute though. 

The children were happy to finally meet her too. Although this was the first time they were meeting her, they already knew her through what Jeannette had told them about her. They didn’t quite know what to expect, but having experienced one grandma already, they had high expectations.

“So, babies, what would you like to do first?”

Janessa smiled sweetly and said, “We’re not babies, granny.”

Juliette’s reputation proceeded her, and Ciera thought she would be proactive and set the tone for the day. However, she found that her old age made her forgetful at times, and she got the twins mixed up. “Don’t take that tone with me, young lady!”

Juliette thought it was cool to see someone else besides herself get in trouble for once. Jonathan didn’t really know what was going on.

“You’re all going to be kind and respectful today, right?”

“Yes, granny,” they all said.

“Good! Now…what should we get up to?”

“Cloud gazing,” Jonathan yelled.

“Oooh, yes. That sounds like a lot of fun,” Ciera said. They all got down on the ground and commenced to point out clouds and what they thought they looked like. Ciera attempted to make it an educational experience, but after a few minutes, she was happy just to listen to their innocent conversations.

The twins had fun for a while, but quickly grew bored and got up. Allen was about and came out to meet his nieces and nephew.

“Hey little ladies! Having fun?”

“Hi, Uncle Allen! I’m Janessa…this is Juliette.”

He smiled and said, “It’s nice to finally meet you ladies. You look like your mom when she was your age, Juliette.”

She gasped. “I DO?

“Oh no! What am I going to do?”

Allen wasn’t quite sure what just happened, but even more clueless as to how to fix it. “Ummm…but your mom is a nice looking lady…it’s good to look like her…”

“Gotcha! Ha ha! Yeah, I’ve heard that only a thousand times since I’ve been born,” she said sarcastically.

Allen couldn’t believe he had been punked by a child and was wondering what he had gotten himself into. He was used to his sister’s mischief that came from her being a goofball, but it was always fun. Juliette’s mischief had some meanness to it which concerned him.

Ciera and Jonathan finally finished cloud gazing and she went inside to let Allen have some time with his nephew and nieces.

“Hi Uncle Allen,” Jonathan sang.

Janessa usually smiled through Juliette’s meanness, but today she couldn’t let it go. “Juliette,” she yelled, “why are you always so mean? Uncle Allen was trying to be nice! I’m telling mommy when we get home!”

“You will do no such thing,” Juliette said.

“Oh yes I will!”

“No you won’t! Snitches get glitches.”

Jonathan and Allen didn’t dare get in the middle of a sisterly fight. Instead, Allen took Jonathan inside where it was safe. But, eventually the girls came inside too and everything was all better.

“Uncle Allen? Do you like Llama Man or Unicorn,” Jonathan asked.

“Llama Man all the way!”

“Yes!”

“NOOOO,” Juliette yelled. “We are not going to watch that dumb show! Super heroes are dumb!”

Ohhhh boy…here we go again, Allen thought.

“Ok! Ok! We don’t have to watch it!” Jonthan was afraid to cross Juliette and complied with all of her commands. Janessa was caught in the middle as always and tried to make peace.

“It’s not nice to say things are dumb, Juliette.”

“IT’S DUMB!”

Allen decided he had enough for one day and retreated to his room. Ciera took his place on the couch as it was clear this was a situation for a grandma to handle. “What’s all this yelling in here,” she asked.

“I was telling Juliette that it’s not nice to say things are dumb, but she keeps saying it!”

Oh plum. I yelled at the wrong twin, Ciera thought.

“I see. You should listen to your sister, Juliette. ‘Dumb’ isn’t a nice word at all. Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean you can make fun of someone else for liking it, ok?”

“Ok, granny,” Juliette said reluctantly.

“Ok. Who wants to help granny make pancakes?”

“Me! I do,” the girls yelled.

Jonathan seized the opportunity to cheer on Llama Man while his sisters disappeared. In the kitchen, Ciera commenced to teach the girls about making pancakes. But, as always they had to fight about everything:  who got to crack the egg, who gets to stir the batter, how come hers is bigger than mine. All her life, Ciera had guilt about having to spend so much time away from her children to provide for them so they wouldn’t have any needs. But, this day, she was mildly grateful that she missed annoying little squabbles like this. Once all the pancakes were made, they sat down to eat.

“These are good, granny! Better than the ones mommy makes,” Juliette said.

“Juliette,” Janessa yelled. “That isn’t nice!”

“It’s true! These are nice and fluffy and thick. Mommy’s are…not! I think Grandma Viv’s are the best though.”

“You shouldn’t say things like that,” Janessa reasoned.

“LOOK, you! Stop telling me what I should and shouldn’t say! You’re not the boss of me!”

Ciera was way out of her league. It had been a long time since she had small children, and her children were well-behaved for the most part. They got into mischief, and she had to rein Jeannette in at times when she needed to be serious, but she never got into any serious trouble. She considered stepping in, but she thought it was best to leave it alone until she had a chance to speak with Jeannette. “Girls…remember you said you were going to be nice…right?”

The sun was beginning to set, and Ciera was actually looking forward to the children leaving. She loved them, of course, but it had been a while since she was around children. She forgot how exhausting it could be. They said their goodbyes and got hugs and kisses and were on their merry way.

Meanwhile, back at home, grandma was busy making sure that the children would not forget which grandmother loved them the most–not that it was a competition or anything…he he he. Just in case they went to granny’s and forgot about the love they’ll receive at home, Viviana thought they may need a little reminding.

They didn’t need reminding, but they sure appreciated the gesture.