My wife and I were fortunate enough to babysit our 3-year-old grandson, “Spike,” who lives across the country, for 5 wonderful days. Being woken by Spike each morning at about 5:40 was a blessing. Tired as my wife and I were, seeing him and hearing his “Hi, Grandpa – Hi, Grandma” was music to our ears. Then one of us would take Spike downstairs to play “cars-and- trucks,” while the other of us went back to sleep for awhile.

Once my wife and I were sufficiently rested, we gathered up our belongings, and Spike’s belongings, and headed out in our daughter’s car to the zoo, beach, the mall, and my favorite place of all: Wegman’s. If you have never been to a Wegman’s, you don’t know what you are missing. It’s a “grocery store” extraordinaire!

100 Toys — and I Need More

I wish that I were rich enough to hire a camera person to take continuous movies of our grandson during our stay. Almost every minute there was an unsuspected surprise — and my camera was usually not ready for the shot. For example, the time when Spike’s pants were falling down as he was running in the mall. The time Spike dumped all 100 plastic toys into the tub for his bath. The times he stopped being upset all at once, and said “I happy now.”

Yes, there were those occasional tantrums. They were usually precipitated by our “clumsy” change from the routine. For example, we knew that Spike liked to do things by himself. So when my wife removed his wet underwear, and he cried for us to put back the wet underwear, and we refused – well, you can picture the calamity.

There’s something very special about seeing any one of your young kids – or young grandkids – with shampoo on his head in the bath: All of them look the same! It sure does bring back memories. In fact, these 5 days evoked many fond memories of our days as young parents. We realized that our energy has slightly waned, but that our enthusiasm has not.

Would we honestly have wanted to watch Spike for another 5 days? Yes and no. Yes, because Spike rejuvenated us and because he is so adorable. And no, because we miss his mom and dad – probably as much as Spike.

These 5 days, my wife and I have smiled and laughed more than I can remember in any 5-day period. We can truly say, ”We happy now.”

Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at robertebsen@hotmailcom