Category: Freebies

Your grandkids' fingerprints.. the best place to find them

21/10/2015

We pulled into the darkened driveway and I turned to look at the sleeping children in the back seat. Only Amy was awake, her big eyes shadowed with tiredness.

"Home at last!" I whispered. "Still awake?"

She nodded and I noticed Laura slumped heavily against her shoulder.

"Can you walk or do you need Daddy to carry you?"
"I'm okay."

I fumbled with the seatbelts and lifted Laura into my arms, surprised at how heavy she felt. I probably wouldn't have managed Ben. They were all growing so fast.
"Watch the step, honey. Here, take my hand."

The scene plays out in my mind, one of the many times I had carried one or other of our children. But, hard as I try, I cannot remember the very last time I held them in my arms and carried them to bed. There must have been a 'last time.' They are all grown now.

The last time
When was that 'last time?' Why didn't trumpets blare and fireworks explode? It should have been a momentous occasion. Why didn't I take note?

Like the last time a sleepy child crept into bed with us.... the last time I searched for missing homework... the last time I checked whether teeth had been brushed... the last time I tucked a small child into bed... so many 'last times' that had slipped by unnoticed.

Time passes so fast and moments are forgotten. And it's often only when they're gone that you realise how much you miss them...even the mess, the wall-to-wall toys.. the fingerprints on the walls.

A small memento
So here's a little something to help you remember those small, but important moments before they vanish forever.

Print the file below- a page ready for your kids' or grandkids' hand-prints, before they're grown and gone. The small poem below is printed on the page with space for the prints at the top. Use some water-based paints on a sponge. Ask your kids to press their hand on the sponge and then on the printed page. Add it to a scrapbook, frame it or take a photo of it and load it into your tablet's photos.

Sometimes you get discouraged because I am so small
And always leave my fingerprints on furniture and walls.
But every day I’m growing up and soon I’ll be so tall
That all those little hand-prints will be hard to recall.
So here’s a special hand-print just so you can say,
“This is how your fingers looked when you placed them here today.”