MAKE-OVERS (Granddaughter Style!)

One of the best parts of visiting Tom and Krista, my son and daughter-in-law, is having little three-year-old Keira come downstairs to greet me in the morning. She has a cartoon-cute voice worthy of one of the princess-faeries she loves to daily dress as, making it completely impossible to resist any request she makes.

Keira loves make-up.

I'm generally still on Maryland time when I visit, which means I'm finishing up my dressing routine, (my make-up) about the time she skips downstairs to greet me. Her tiny hand knocks on the bathroom door a second before she opens it to ask in that faery-like voice, "Hi Grandma, what-cha doooooieeeeeng?"

Her smile breaks like the morning sun over the mountains, and I am hers . . . completely and irreversibly. Therefore, so is anything she wants, and that usually means my make-up bag.

It's okay. She only puts it on herself, leaving Grandma intact.

But on the above day, Grandma was babysitting for a few days, and about mid-afternoon the drowsies took over. We had played Barbies, faeries, we had colored, sang songs, read books and jumped on the trampoline, (it wasn't pretty but it was really fun!), and Grandma was running out of gas. Not so Keira. I needed one more super-fun trick before nap time . . . something Grandma could snooze through. "AHA!" I thought. "Let's play make-over!"

Not only was I an instant rock-star Grandma just for suggesting this game, it was an activity which allowed . . . no REQUIRED me to close my eyes. So while she slathered shadow on my eyes and powdered me up until I looked like a loaf of rising dough, I took a five-minute power nap.

What woke me up? The doorbell.

Of course it would be at this very moment that a neighbor dropped by to deliver a party invite to my grandson, followed a few minutes later by the dry-cleaning guy. I passed the mirror on the way to the second errand, and seeing the majesty of Keira's work, I managed a few quick swipes with a tissue to "dust myself off". But here is a glimpse of what was and will ever be one of my favorite grandma/Keira days. It deosn't get better than this!