I  missed my run yesterday.  I knew it would happen, and it was a conscious decision.  That’s not a trivial affair for this exercise addict.  But it was oh, so worth it.

In actual fact, I still did plenty of running.  But it was in the confines of my daughter’s basement, chasing two toddlers.  I may not have clocked many miles, but the tally for giggles and hugs was sky high.

Ben and the crow in the playhouse

Right off the bat we found a stash of puppets.  These weren’t your run of the mill puppets, they were Shari Lewis style gems.  As we resurrected Lamb Chop, Hush Puppy, Charlie Horse and the black crow, the memories came flooding back.  How I loved those TV shows and Shari’s marvelous ventriloquism.  The puppets joined our play for most of the morning and shared the cardboard playhouse with us.  Its no-frills simplicity made for a perfect hide-out for the three of us and our puppet pals.

In fact, that led to our next adventure – Hide and Seek.  There were endless places to sneak around among the boxes and storage bins in the basement.  But admittedly, the playhouse was a favorite hiding spot.  Funny how it took me so long to catch on.  I loved searching high a low for those two little munchkins, bypassing them intentionally to drag out the hunt.  But I got an even bigger kick out of it when they did the same!  Kids catch on so fast.

Ben’s picture of Grammy, Mya and the puppets

I tried to capture the moments with my little camera.  Catching the joy on their little faces or the mischievous glint in their eyes was next to impossible.  But the camera served an even better purpose.  I had let Ben take some pictures with it at Christmas time, and we all had a good laugh out of seeing the world from his point of view – looking up at everything.  So when my camera emerged again, he insisted on another turn.  And like before, he took some very credible shots.  I like them even better than my own.  Mya’s turn produced a lot of fuzz and blur, but a Grammy can’t be partial when granting favors.

Play.  It’s all we did for a whole morning.  It’s truly the luxury of being a Grammy.  I don’t recall ever abandoning my long To Do List to just let down and play with my own kids.  At least not for hours on end.  And yet, it seems to come naturally the second time around.

I really didn’t miss that run.  I had better things to do.  I got to play.