Big Man-Little Man

We recently had the pleasure of keeping one of our grandsons for the weekend.  All by himself!  Usually his older sister is with us so he was especially happy to have Nana and Papa all to himself.  He followed Papa all over the place and they fished, loaded the deer feeder, sat in the deer stand and watched for deer and cook burgers for us.   On Saturday we got up early and made pancakes for breakfast and then he decided he wanted to look for treasures.  He found some old metal parts of tractors and other unidentifiable items.  He gathered them all up and told me he was going to make a ferris wheel.  Well, okay……..

Mind you, this boy is just 5.  Looks like he has a pretty good start on that Ferris Wheel.  Then he and his Papa went out into the “forest”  in search of more treasures.  They ran upon what appeared to be the remains of an old vehicle.  Coach thought it was an old Model A.   He remembered it from his childhood.  It was all tangled up with a tree trunk growing right up through what would have been the hood.

You can see the “spine” of the car running across the bottom of the photo.  They started digging in the front end and actually found the engine block.

Then they dug around the back-end and found some old wheels, a hammer mill and even an old cream can.  All these “treasures” have been left in the woods for another visit.  We convinced Kader that these things had been in the woods so long that they needed to stay there.  He reluctantly agreed.  He really wanted to take them all home with him and put them in his toy box.  His mother was glad we convinced him to leave them there.

Then the big man and the little man got a call for help.  Coach’s brother had shot a buck and needed help hauling him out of the plum thickets.  So we loaded up on the 4 wheeler and off we went.  Across the dam, past the pond, and through the pastures and trees.  We found BIL (brother-in-law) huffing and puffing as he pulled and tugged his big buck toward the pickup.  After helping him get the buck to the road our little man decided he needed to check this creature out.  He looked in his eyes, in his ears, under his tail, bottoms of his hooves, and then ran his little hand down his side.  YUCK!  He about freaked out when he pulled back a hand with blood on it.

Then the Big Man let the Little Man hold the deer up just like the guys on TV do.

He helped them gut it and clean it and then told me that he was never going to kill a deer because it is too yucky.  I have a tendency to agree with him.

We finished out the day by doing a little fishing and then grilled some hot dogs and listened to the coyotes howl until we went into bed.  When his parents came to get him the next day he cried because he just wants to live at the farm in the camper and spend all the time finding treasures and fishing.  Sounds like a deal to me.

I love spending time with my grandchildren.  Especially when I can spend one on one time with them.  We don’t get to do that often enough though since we have so many now but every chance I get I want to spend quality time with these precious kids.  I remember my grandmothers and the wonderful times that I got to spend with them.  They taught me about unconditional love and about having patience.  I loved them with all my heart.

I am so thankful that my Big Man aka Coach is so willing to take these little ones and teach them the things that a man needs to know.  I can work with the girls but the boys need his knowledge and his attention.  He teaches them not only about hunting and fishing but also about respect and good manners.  He teaches them to be men of integrity.  I am so thankful that my Big Man loves all three of my Little Men.  Just like he loved our own Little Men and helped them to become the wonderful Big Men that they are today.  Am I a lucky girl or what????

One final photo of my Little Man.  I love this photo because he looks so sweet and  innocent.  Yeah, not his normal pose……

I can’t take credit for this photo because his 13 year old sister took my camera out and took his photo in my yard one day.  She is really good with a camera but that is another post entirely.