Spending the Day With Mia

I won’t go into why my husband and I decided to take our youngest granddaughter out for the day, I’ll just say it had more to do with her being our granddaughter.  I’m so glad we did though.
I’ve had Mia out we with me for the day before and I enjoyed it tremendously but yesterday was something that Buddy and I hadn’t been able to do with her before.  She’s not quite four, her birthday is in May, but she is one of the most amazing young people I’ve ever been around.  Don’t get me wrong, we do spend time with our grandchildren, but not often with them just one at a time.  Even more rarely do we have them for as long as we had Mia yesterday.  OK, I have to be honest here, unless it is an emergency we rarely have them for more than a few hours.  We aren’t babysitters and don’t intend to be.  We want to be the grandparents that the kids have fun with and not just someone who has to be around them.
We’ve had the older ones out more than Mia because, well she was so young and she is very attached to her parents.  She’s getting old enough to start breaking away from a lot of that and yesterday we had an opportunity to even the field with her.
There is a restaurant that Buddy and I like and to go to and it is pretty much an all-day thing.  At least it is for me.  This is a trip that usually involves me finding neat places to take pictures.  Believe me, it drives my husband nuts.  Fortunately, he is usually a good sport about it.  Sometimes he can be an ass too.
“Really Cathy, another one?”  I’ve heard more than once in more ways than one.
Since we stopped for a late breakfast we decided to do something else close to the restaurant we were going and just let Mia see some new things.  The restaurant where we were going was close to the Shiloh National Park, so we decided to take her there.  I know many of you may know what that is and for those who don’t, well this next sentence may not make sense.  Those of you who do know what this park is may be wondering why we would take a three-year-old there.  The answer to that is simple, because it was there.
Of course, this is not a park with a playground, well not for most children anyway.  Mia as I said, is amazing.  She took to the place like a duck to water, and I almost mean that literally.  It sits right on the Tennessee River and this kid loves water, any water.  She also has a bit of the, I’m going to put this in a more diplomatic way, and say she has a bit of the old pioneering spirit in her.  We had to explain to her several times that if we saw any deer the only shots that we would be taking would be with a camera.  I have to say, I don’t think this is a young lady who would have problems shooting Bambi’s mother or daddy.  She is already developing an interest in hunting.
Shiloh National Park has a lot of cannons.  When Mia discovered these and found out what they were her immediate question was, “can we shoot them?”  Once she was told she couldn’t, climbing and posing on them was her next best thing to do.  This child is afraid of nothing, and I do mean nothing.  Well, her Aunt Suzie did tell her once to be careful of owls because one might snatch her up and fly away with her, so she is cautious of owls.  My money would be on Mia.  The owl would never have a chance against this kid.  It is ironic of me to say here that this kid is a hoot, and she is.
So, what does this little ball of fire look like.  Not what you would expect.  She is all girl when it comes to her appearance.  Everything she wears has to match including her nail polish.  Yes, she has to have her nails done.  Oh, and God help you if you so much as even think of not putting some type of bow in her hair.  Yesterday the only thing that wasn’t matched to her outfit was her boots.  She did know that she might be out in the mud, so nothing would do but that she wear her cowboy boots.  She did bring an extra pair of shoes in case she needed to bring it up a notch in the way of her appearance.
I’m not sure who had more fun yesterday, her or her granddad and me.  I can tell you, I can’t wait to do it again.