I will tell you what happened today.
Maya loves my stamps. Every time she comes to visit, she picks out a few. Then she spends quite a bit of time pouring over the stamp pads and coordinating the colors. She easily found the stamp cleaner and the wet-wipes.
Next she counted out a few pieces of typing paper.
All of the time, she hummed.
Since it will soon be Easter, she concentrated on stamping little chicks, which she colored in with Sharpie markers . . . with her left hand, of course. She tried to stamp a beautiful bird but it was too difficult and she became frustrated. She tried some little borders and they turned out great.
She wrote her name. She blew on the paper. She would have covered the yellow chicks with glitter but in all honesty, it wasn’t a glitter day. 99% of the time I say YES. I reminded her of that fact when she pulled a face and had to admit that “well, yes . . . that is true”.
She only said “but, Grandma” one time.
Pretty grown-up for six.
There was a time when this assortment of stamps, pens, ink pads, scissors and paper was a chore to clean up. Not to mention the many wet-wipes it took to clean off the little hands.
Not any more.
I went outside to follow Grandpa and Maya’s mommy around the yard for a minute and when Maya’s mommy said it was time to go, I said good-bye from the back yard.
Lo and Behold.
When I sat down at my desk in the evening I was pleasantly surprised and very, very proud of Maya. All of the ink pads had been put away with the lids on tight. All of the Sharpies were sticking straight out of the pelican planter where they live with their lids on tight as well and the wet wipes looked like they had wiped up a rainbow.
If you are a grandma, you should get some rubber stamps before they don’t sell them anymore. Lately, the thrift stores have had millions of them for almost nothing. Seems that crafty women are moving a different direction.
You can buy washable ink pads but I think that regular ink pads wash off clothes and fingers just fine. It is even fun to use rubber or cling stamps with craft paint. I have tried that with children on days where I felt unusually brave.
