The Fast 5 (#003) 💙
grandson + perspective + good links
On a recent weekend, our third grandson Tate spent the night at Gigi and Pop’s. He’s 5 years old and has the most darling personality. I sometimes call him Tate-the-tool-man because he never met a tool he didn’t love (seriously).
Tate lives on the family ranch with his dad, mom, and younger brother. He’s at home feeding the horses, helping count the newborn calves, and playing outdoors in the wide-open spaces.
He spent nearly every day of his first 4-years (before starting pre-K) hanging out with Dad on the ranch while Mom was at her nursing job in the city. Tate has watched the men in the family mend fences, weld farm equipment, and drive tractors. He’s smart as a whip (of course) and can rattle off the name of every type of large machinery on wheels at the drop of a hat.
The morning following his recent sleepover, Tate and I were having a conversation while he ate a cup of microwave mac-and-cheese (his favorite food, second only to biscuits and gravy). Our two middle grandsons could eat microwave mac-and-cheese for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if we let them.
Anyway, I told Tate that Pop and I were getting older and, in a few years, we would sell this house. “Why?” he asked. I tried to explain that once Pop and I stopped working, we might move closer to him but not too far from his cousins. I said, “We need to be close enough to drive to all our grandsons’ ball games and school activities.”
“Do you mean you’ll come live at my house?” No, I said, I don’t think Mom and Dad want us to move in. But maybe we’ll buy a tiny house and put it somewhere closer to Tipton Ranch.
Tate responded immediately (imagine his very high-pitched 5-year-old voice), “A TINY HOUSE!!!!! But Gigi, you and Pop won’t be able to get through the door because it’s only big enough for a MOUSE!!”
While laughing, I told him the house would not be THAT tiny! Unfortunately, his 5-year-old mind immediately pictured something like the photo below. :)
In my mind, IF we moved into a tiny house (honestly, that is a very big IF), it would probably look more like the following photo—plus an additional 1,000 square feet. I love the log cabin look, but we are gonna need space enough so we don’t drive each other crazy.