As a grandma, you know you’re onto something when after engaging in an activity with a grandkiddo, he or she says, “We should do this every time!”

Well, I believe I’m onto something as Declan, my five-year-old long-distance grandson, declared exactly that during a recent FaceTime visit he and I had.

My success revolved around stickers. FaceTime stickers … or gifs or emojis or whatever their technical name may be. Declan was beginning to wander during our FaceTime call, which makes me downright dizzy watching the ceiling as he walks, talks, and waves the phone about. So I decided to dazzle him with some snow stickers on the screen.

Declan immediately focused on the phone. “Hey, how’d you do that!?” he asked.

The rest of our conversation revolved around teaching him from afar how to make FaceTime far more fun.

Declan’s first efforts at FaceTime stickers and silliness

After smattering stickers all about the screen for a bit, Declan announced his desire to “do this every time.”

And we have every time since!

Okay, there’s been only one FaceTime call since his request but he was pretty adamant about having another go at it during that video call. I had to remind him again where to find the fun stuff, then I shared some advanced techniques — i.e. filters — while he fiddled about.

Declan’s clearly getting much better at using the various effects.

As the call wound down, Declan asked me to get one last picture of him … of him sleeping. Having no fear I’d bored the kid to tears, er, sleep, I happily obliged before we giggled, grinned, and ended our call.

I don’t know about you, but any time I can entertain a grandson with minimal effort and get him to settle in for a nap without resistance counts as certain success in my book.