Working for Grandpa

Last night my dad called me and asked if he could take either of his two grandsons to work for him. Unfortunately, Brayden's soccer team has been at a soccer camp with the UO Women Soccer team and Traig was camping with his parents. Sorry, Dad, we don't have any boys for you - but, hey, Mikayla will be around.......and hey, she might stay on task longer than Brayden. (That's no slam on my son, just a certain personality contrast between the two of them). Dad replied that that might just work. I then talked to Mikayla and she was giddy at the idea- so it was set. Grandpa would be picking up his little helper at 7:30 am, have a lunch packed for her and he'd have her home by 2.

The job he had in mind was simply holding the tape measure so he could do distance calculations on the property where he's been asked to build his next house. If he didn't have a helper, he'd have had to nail the tape measure down to do it himself. So, clearly, he wasn't needing a rocket scientist, just someone willing to go the distance (or measure the distance, hee-hee!).

Fast forward to tonight - when Stephie arrived Mikayla proudly proclaimed, "Stephie, do you care that Grandpa and I are building a house?" Clearly, she feels a little more important than a tape measure holder!

Earlier this afternoon, after Dad dropped her off, they were both smiling, so I figured it went well. He handed her ten bucks and she literally snatched it out of his hands. Then he had a little talk with her about why she got the money - it was very cute.

A few minutes later he called me to tell me a few more details. He said that after about a half hour of work she was asking when lunch was and proceeded to ask at least every half hour after that. (That's no surprise - Mikayla is a huge grazer, can't imagine where she gets that). He also said that towards the end as she was starting to get bored, she began to pull all of the tape measures off of his belt. When she got to the biggest one, she said, "Grandpa, it's my turn to be the boss, you hold the tape measure now!" What a hoot. She also made it clear that the reason she was bored was because "Grandpa kept making mistakes". (Apparently, Dad had told Mom when she came by for lunch that he had made some mistakes and she latched on to that).

Of course, Brayden had a bit to say that she got to go to work and he didn't, so I assured him that there are two very big house projects coming up and I'm sure there will be opportunities a plenty for him to do some odd jobs (as well as the other grandkids). But, secretly, I gotta say I'm kind of tickled he got his granddaughter this time - just like the old days with his daughters doing work with him. Very cool.......