Dear Friends,

I had the privilege to “make memories” with our granddaughter this past week.

Her day care was closed for a Spring Break and her parents still had to work. Our daughter worked from home and her partner had to go into work. Obviously they needed help with their 3 1/2 year old and 5 month old baby. Our baby Bailey was in day care Mon, Tues Wed and Glenn stayed home on Thursday to help care for the little one.

The other grandma, Sue, and I put our heads together and came up with a plan! Throughout the week we took turns caring for Peyton and taking her to various places, the Safari Park, the Library for Story time, Michaels store to pick out a basket for “treasurers”, 2 toddler gym classes, the park, Baskin Robbins for ice cream and time at each of our homes. My daughter Tammy said she had the “best week of her life!”

One of the times Peyton was with both Steve and me, we set out Art supplies, markers, paper, a small white board with its special markers. We weren’t sure if she would be more interested in the art or jumping on the trampoline, riding her the red tricycle or playing hide and seek etc. This time she was really interested in art and drawing circles. So Steve and I took turns drawing circles with her, then we added eyes to the circle. She added eyes to her circle. As the time went on, we were really in teaching moments. She became fascinated with drawing faces. She kept saying. ” Let’s do it again!” Needless to say we eventually drew legs, feet, hair, ears, nose, mouth. I watched her “learn” and was amazed at her perseverance! We then asked her to tell us a “story” about her drawings which added a new creative element! This is a child who not too long ago had the attention span of a gnat. I say that lovingly. We spent 3 hours “coloring faces and bodies” that day.

Our sweet Peyton taught us Perseverance when learning something new! How often do we give up when we are learning something new just because we can’t quite “get it” at first? Many people stop short of new learnings, and ways to do things as well as accomplishing goals. It took “Thomas Edison 1,000 attempts before he invented the light bulb.”(Google)

Today, persevere and be persistent with a new idea, a new direction, a new thought and keep at it until it becomes second nature to you. Skills, abilities and timing also play a role in learning something new. No matter how good or great you become at the learned activity, do your best and enjoy the process.

Keep saying, “Let’s do it again!”

Persevering with Peyton,

Abigail and Steve