Kids.
You send them to the Grandparents for a few days, and you miss ‘em like crazy.
You can’t WAIT to pick them up, knowing that they’ll run to you, jump into your arms, and hug you, showering their undying affection upon you.
Then you arrive, and you are quickly reminded of The Grandparent Effect.
It’s not purposeful on the Grandparent’s part, but any child being the center of attention and running the joint for a few days can’t help but curdling into the most spoiled of states.
Their attitudes smell even worse than those sippy cups of milk that you find underneath the sofa – the ones that you have to shake over the sink with a vehement force to make the solid lump of milk turn loose and jiggle it’s putrid way down the drain, all while you attempt mashing it up with a fork to help it squeeze through.
When kids under the influence of The Grandparent Effect arrive back into real life where Mommy has to do other things besides playing all day…like, say, go to the grocery store or, heaven forbid, take a bath, their jiggly curdledness shakes loose on a regular basis.
They pout. They whine. They fall, severely ungracefully, from their perch atop their Cherished Grandchildren Thrones.
Fortunately, I brought Ali enough BlogHer swag to almost completely counteract The Grandparent Effect.
But Noah – well, he got much less loot.
And he is officially now old enough to experience, for the first time ever, The Grandparent Effect.
He came home with a newly learned expression of curdled disgust when I don’t do exactly what he desires.
It starts out like this…
Then, if I’m not compliant, it progresses to this…
And then, if I still choose to disobey, I receive it.
The Ultimate Look of Shun.
Menacing, isn’t he?
Even Jiggly and Curdled and under the complete influence of The Grandparent Effect, he still makes me want to kiss those big, fat, angry lips.
If my kids looked like Noah when they were feeling all whiny and spoiled, I might not mind it (quite) so much. Holy cute!
I know – I wish this phase of whininess would be the pattern he always uses – I’ve been laughing at his ‘tude all week!! He even laughs at himself when I show him that picture. At least he sees the humor in it!
that is so cute…. he is growing like weed
Ali made off with some good loot….
Have a blessed day..
Yes she did! She is quite thrilled . It’s the nice thing about BlogHer – you get so much free stuff, you don’t have to do any souvenir shopping!
Awwwww, he is absolutely precious!!!!
seriously! what did you do to make Noah’s eyelashes so perfectly perfect?! uh…DORABLE!!!
It is so true. It is usually worth it though, even if it takes awhile to get back on track. And he is getting so big (and always cute!)
Oh it’s definitely worth it – for me and for them!! It does us all a world of good.
That is a ridiculous amount of cuteness!! I so feel your pain when it comes to the Grandparent Effect! Mine are absolutely rotten by the end of their time with the Cici and Pawpaw! Your description of the nasty sippy cups had me cracking up over here!
Any Mom who doesn’t occasionally find those sippy cups is Superwoman in my opinion!!
Can’t wait to be one of those grandparents! It’s pay back time honey!!! Glad you had fun in San Diego! Love that city!
His faces are hilarious! And Miss Ali – still an angel! Keep the pics coming!
Ah, the grandparent effect. It never goes away-even when they are much older. Okay, I would be kissing those sweet lips all day!
What an adorable face–not a bad result from the grandparent effect! Did they also grow-up significantly while you were gone? This seems to always happen to us. We go out of town for a couple of days and the girls seem to have grown up so much. By the way, Ali’s outfit (I am guessing PJs) is so cute!
I was expecting them to feel older, but they didn’t this time! Noah is really working on his crawling abilities this week, but he was doing that before we left, too.
Oh he’s a goodie, curdled lips and all!
I didn’t see you there! What a crock of no fair!
I know! I looked everywhere for you!! But I was only there on Friday, so I didn’t run into a lot of people this time :(
Such cute pictures, Noah’s faces are priceless. Ali must think it is Christmas.
Noah’s facial expressions are hilarious!
Never experienced the Grandparent Effect myself, but I must say that I’m dying too…would love a weekend alone with Ryan :)
I really hope you get to experience that very soon!!
My son’s only 19 months old, and any time at Grandma’s or Auntie’s was disastrous!! I had to have a talk with both of them. Luckily, it worked. For the most part. Still trying to get Grandpa on board…
Hopefully he’ll get better soon!! To me, The Grandparent Effect is totally worth it for all of the love and affection they get from said Grandparents, besides my being able to take a break and recharge! :)
I haven’t had the pleasure of keeping my grandson overnight, but I hope one day to have Grandma and Grandpa camp here. I totally get that you see that they ride on pedestals, it’s true. Nothing can they do wrong. It’s quite a phenomena that you only get to experience once one of your beloved children give birth. There is passion and love that you can completely give and not have the worries you have as a parent. I can only say this much: wait and see! Mark my words…in another 20 years when young get your first grandchild, you become the “grandma”.
When my kids were little, it took days to deprogram them from being with my parents, and they could only have been there for a few hours! So I get both sides, and I’m loving being a grandma! :)
Grandparent camp is the BEST!! I absolutely love that my kids get so much positive influence and love from their Grandparents – it’s totally worth “The Grandparent Effect”!!
I agree – being a Grandparent has got to be amazing – getting to do all of the loving without the training. I hope you get to do camp soon!!
We used to call the process of coming back to reality “grandparent detox”. The withdrawal isn’t pretty and it’s sometimes painful, but it’s what helps kids live in the real world. :)
Yup – detox all right. I think it’s equally healthy for them to get to live in fantasy-it’s-all-about-me world every now and then – just not for too long!!
My kiddos come back tomorrow – no doubt they will ask for ice cream for breakfast.
Ha! I love it. That bowl of cereal will help them detox quickly, I’m sure – especially if you put water in it instead of milk.
Oh my goodness, if you can’t give in to that adorable face then you are truly a wicked and mean mommy :)
My grands have all had the “pleasure” of living with us at one time or another due to their parents experiencing temporary unemployment, divorce, and health issues so it is more like cousin camp when they come down here and they don’t have any desire to leave. Sometimes one of them gets away with extending her stay by several days because she is so good we forget that we have her and don’t bother to send her back until her mommy calls to find out what is going on.
And we have been told that they are whiny and demanding when they get home, but hey, they never act that way here! We just give them whatever they want and let them play and watch movies and eat popcorn until they drop and they seem just fine. LOL
You sound like the best sort of Grandparent!! Being spoiled every now and then is a wonderful treat for any kid.
Oh, and those curdled sippy cups, I throw those in the trash and go to Wal-Mart and get new ones! I don’t have the stomach for pushing that glob down the drain and after bleaching them overnight, they still smell suspect to me. Blech!
Girl, I know ALL about the grandparent effect! You described it perfectly – down to the missing sippy cups that you don’t find until two weeks later (I, too, have thrown many a sippy cup away, not wanting to deal with the disgusting curdle). My mom thinks its perfectly OK to feed my kids candy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And doubts they need to take a nap, because they “just want to play,” after all. And while I understand that this is because she loves and misses her grandchildren whom she rarely gets to see, I sometimes find myself wondering, “How in the world did this woman raise four kids?” :) P.S. I LOVE the pictures of your son – hilarious!
I think being a grandparent must be GLORIOUS – all the love and affection without a care in the world. I fully plan on letting Ali and Noah face The Grandparent Effect from the other side as well! :)
he is TOO CUTE!
LOVE the Ultimate Look of Shun! So funny!