Eva

When your children are born your first concern is for their health.  Do they have all of their fingers and toes?  If the answer is yes, the celebration begins.   As your grandchildren are born, you take the same inventory.

Eva is my granddaughter with the emphasis on grand.   She reminded me early on of my daughter, her aunt, Elizabeth.  I thought they looked alike.   While her looks have changed, her demeanor has followed the independent path of her aunt.  She marches to her own drummer, and sometimes she’s the whole band.

In her earliest years Eva was into princesses. She loved them all and took on their persona from time to time. When she became one of the princesses, her dad, brother or I became the male counterpart. We danced often and she preferred a dance that included a “dip”.  We twirled, she smiled, and my heart melted.

Early on in her make-believe world, she took on the role of Batman. When I corrected her and said she should be Batgirl, she became upset and insisted she be Batman. That’s just how it was. I became Robyn. I had two capes made for her third birthday – one for Batman and one for Robyn. We often spoke to each other as our caped counterparts would speak to one another. It was great fun and full of love.

We have a large deck near the water on the lake where we live.  The deck has served as a castle, a pirate ship, a dungeon, a magnificent house, and a simple cottage.  Each location included a grand story that was developed on the spot and in the moment.  All it took was our imagination and a willingness to share our time with each other.

A few years ago, I took a “magic” class.  Eva has joined me in the pursuit of magic.   One of our card tricks involves the telling of a story while manipulating the cards.  My story is always the same.   It involves cowboys, Indians and mountain lions.  When Eva does the very same trick, her story is never the same.   One time it’s lions, tigers and bears.  Another it’s cows, sheep and barns. While the characters differ from telling to telling, the outcome is always the same and the magic even more special.

Eva’s interests are varied.  She plays basketball, softball, sings, is an artist, a short order cook, a gymnast, a baker and an equestrian to name just a few.  She’s ambidextrous. (Or perhaps still a work in progress.)    I’ve seen her write with her right hand and then switch to her left.  While playing softball, she’ll bat left-handed and switch to the right side for her next trip to the plate.  Amazing.

Most of all, Eva is Eva.  A few years ago, Ruth and I started taking our grandchildren on trips for their birthdays.  We decided we would focus on experiences with Brady and Eva rather than things.  Brady’s trips are easy to plan.  He wants to see all the baseball parks in the country, so we have started down that path with him.   Eva’s varied interests make her a bit of a challenge.

Two birthdays ago our daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, Sutton, had recently moved to Flagstaff, Arizona.   We decided to take both kids on the same trip to visit their aunt and uncle, take in the view from the top of Mount Humphrey, and enjoy a Diamondbacks game.  I was talking to Eva a couple of weeks before the trip and asked her if she was getting excited about her birthday trip.  She told me it wasn’t her birthday trip; it was Brady’s.  I reminded her that although it was early for her birthday (she’s October and Brady is June), August is right in the middle.   “We’re going to celebrate both birthdays at the same time, on the same trip.”  Her retort was priceless, “I’m not countin it.”

My reply was simple and to the point. “I’m payin, so I’m countin it.”  The trip was fantastic, and everyone had a great time.

I look forward to these trips for as long as she wants to travel with us.  My guess is she’ll “count it” if she has more of a say in where we go.  That’s how she rolls.