Henry in the Middle

God filled my grandma cup with three incredibly sweet granddaughters – Violet, Mia, and Noelle. Life was filled with tea parties, princesses and fairies, Barbie dolls, and glitter adorned fairy wings and princess dresses. Then God took my decidedly glittery pink and purple cup of joy and filled it to overflowing by adding three grandsons – Charlie, Henry, and George. My grand-girl fun was by no means over, but my toy arsenal now included marble-eating plastic dinosaurs, toy cars and trucks, and lots of dirt and bugs.

Henry is 10 years old, loves to talk about all sorts of interesting things, knows more than the average adult about alligators and a host of other reptiles, is super creative and artsy, and he loves to collect things from nature. On a recent after-school visit, Henry brought out this little treasure box he had decorated during craft time at Camp Fairwood.

Opening the lid to this treasure box is not for the squeamish or faint of heart among us, for it is filled to the brim with a collection of bones from tiny critters. Just where does Henry find these bones? Well, they are dissected from owl pellets he finds while exploring the woods in his backyard (click here if you’d like to read about owl pellets).

The boys took me for a hike in their woods to show me the secret place where they had built their forts. One fort was Charlie’s and an adjacent one was Henry’s. George hasn’t built a fort yet, but enjoys helping his older brothers find building materials to create their stick forts.

While Henry was giving me the tour of his fort (which has the toothy jawbone of a cow from Louisiana as its primary decor), he told me he’d like to make a craft with me sometime soon – a decoration he could hang in his fort. Henry described a wind chime or mobile from which he’d like to hang some of his bones.

[Note to my FMF friends: my five minutes of free-writing ends here. But, if you want to find out what we made, then you need to keep reading.]

One afternoon this week I returned with a few items from my craft room: a plastic lid from a jar of instant coffee, a ball of twine, and my collection of ‘pony beads’ in various shades of brown. Henry and I worked together at the kitchen table wrapping that twine around the jar lid to form an earthy decorative ring. Henry wrapped twine for a bit, but then I took over when the twine began to get a bit tangled. Henry chose which beads and bones he wanted to use, then big sister Violet helped me string Henry’s selections onto four lengths of twine while he flitted off to a new adventure. A few beads, then a bone, a few beads, then a bone, a few bird feathers he had collected for added color, then we finished off each strand with a bigger bone just to give it a bit more weight.

With the completed creation in hand, Henry led me on a hike down the hill in their backyard, then through the woodsy winding path which led us to his fort. I hung up his new decoration and got this very pleased smile.

As we admired his new decor, Henry confided, “Grandma, when I’m a dad someday, I want to buy a house with a woods where my kids can build forts.” Then, as if my heart weren’t already overflowing with joy, he sweetly adds, “And I want to do crafts with them, like you do with me.”

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Today I am meeting up with a community of bloggers for Five Minute Friday. Our challenge is to take a one word prompt and write for five minutes. I failed miserably in the “five minute” part of the challenge, but did succeed in writing about a sweet memory that I hope I will never forget. The prompt this week: Middle.