It has been a while since I captured on paper the extreme
cuteness of my grandson. Before my
addled mind goes into forgetful mode, here are some of the moments we spent
together this week.
I love telling Em’s Dad I have ‘Nannie Rules’. I get rewarded with ‘the look’ when I say
this in jest. It’s like I will ruin him
somehow. Well I guess I will, if there
is such a thing as ruining him with love.
Grand-parenting is all about…not worrying if you are spoiling too much
or ‘ruining’ them. It’s just grand!
Almost two now, my grandson is in the mode to investigate,
learn all about cause and effect, and has taken to watching very carefully if
any of his antics will result in a reaction whether good or bad. At times I need to turn my head as I KNOW he
is looking to me for direction. I can’t
help it…I find everything he does is just so darn cute.
Like yesterday, I stayed home with him to give him a day off
from daycare. He was on medication for
tonsillitis and he was not healthy enough to send. Trying to ‘occupy’ him as he is a busy little
man, I suggested we make cookies. He
happily slid his little red chair over to the counter and watched the cookies
get rolled and placed onto the cookie sheet.
I asked him if he wanted to do one.
He picked up a rolled cookie from the sheet, licked it, and put it
back. He took his little hands and
rubbed the cookie dough on his pant leg.
He promptly got down and took off on a dead run. I guess it wasn’t such a good idea. He doesn’t eat sweets so even when the
cookies were done, he did the same thing.
He licked the cookie and put it on a plate. There it sat for the entire day!
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| Pushing the laundry hamper is fun! |
He loves to help. The
laundry chore is fun for him. He ran back and forth with a few articles in his
hand and made a huge production about stuffing them into the washing
machine. It is a front loading
machine…so it is right at his level. He
loves to press the buttons, so rather than have him pressing them willy- nilly,
I let him push the buttons when the machine was ready. He walked off quite proudly swinging his
little arms back and forth.
And speaking of swinging his arms, he loves to dance. If he hears a song he likes, he will dance
around and wave his arms over his head.
I love watching him – he makes me appreciate the small things in life
…like dancing to music! He will
associate certain songs with snuggling as well.
His favorite ‘to bed for a nap’ song in the daytime is Keith Urban. I think I know the songs off by heart now.
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| Grinding pepper into a pot. |
When I get the opportunity I will prepare dinner for his Mom
and Dad. He watches me very
carefully. When I am finished with the
pepper mill he will reach for it. No
harm there, so I give it to him to see what he will do with it. He pulls a pot out of the pot drawer and sits
down and proceeds to grind the pepper into the pot! To my astonishment, he knows how the pepper
mill works…the little monkey!
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| This little truck is a No-No |
Back to Nannie Rules.
There is a small plastic truck he is not allowed to sit on. It is not made for riding and he knows
it. He tests me to see if I will
admonish him for sitting on the truck. I
just look at him and he goes into fits of giggles. Of course he knows the difference but really
wants to see what I will say. I ask him
“What would your Mommie say if she saw you riding the truck?” His answer was more giggles. So I invoke “Nannie rules.” Today, Baby Em is
more important than a plastic truck, so I walk away. He is surprised by that and quickly abandons
the truck and follows me out of the room.
That was easy!
 |
| The little pointy finger hard at work. |
This little guy is quite technically literate. The very first thing he crawled to was his
Mother’s iPhone. So it is no surprise
now that he takes his little finger and expertly swipes at the phones to make
the pictures move. Amazing! I once tried to trick him with a TV remote
that wasn’t hooked up to anything. That
didn’t work. He still grabs the ‘real’
remote and pushes every button he can find, as fast as he can, to see what will
happen. Quick does not describe him…he
is ‘Uber-quick’! I have a lot of blurry
pictures to prove it.
Since he is approaching two, he is becoming quite fascinated
with the ‘bathroom’ duties. He follows
me into the bathroom and giggles when he sees me using it. I explain what I am doing and he smiles and
nods. Yesterday, he patted his behind. I asked him if he wanted to use the
potty. He nodded and made a beeline for
the bathroom. I went along with this
wondering what he had in mind. He bent
over and pulled at the diaper tabs. I
assisted him and the (already) wet diaper fell with a wet flop to the
floor. I hoisted him onto the toilet and
he sat there holding on to the sides. He
looked around at the ceiling and the walls pretending that he was actually doing
something. I pretended too. I praised him for using the potty and he jumped
down like he was finished his business.
Taking one little square of toilet tissue he proceeded to wipe himself
off. What a little ham! It is the beginning though. And soon he will be in another independent
phase…the terrific twos.
He loves trying on shoes or boots; his own, his
grandfathers, or anyone else’s. He found a new pair of shoes on the desk and
was really frustrated he couldn’t get his feet into them. (They are too small for him, but he doesn’t
understand the concept). I crouched down
to offer him some assistance. He frowned
at first and then with a playful smirk said ‘Go!” I guess he wanted to be frustrated all by
himself. I told him for sure, it was
okay to do it himself. This
little man is so strong willed; I imagine he will always let me know when to
back off! So far he is staying true to
his Aries sign!
The weather is too cold to have outings these days, so we
are resigned to having a play date indoors.
His attention span is short, making it even more important to have many
‘little’ activities for him. The
‘coloring with crayons’ may only last a few minutes because his attention turns
to breaking the crayons in half…cause and effect again. He motioned for me to stick the two pieces
back together. It was fun to break them,
but he was not happy with the results. I
found some tape and taped them back together.
He smiled and stood them perfectly on end in the little plastic
container. That was fun!!
I know why young people have children! I can’t take my eyes off this little boy
because nothing is going to happen to him on ‘my’ watch. I only have to turn my back for a second and
turning, I find him sitting on top of the dining room table! Nannie is pooped at the end of the day. The fatigue is worth it. He rewards all my efforts with huge hugs
around my neck and when he calls my name, I know there is a God!
L.Lorraine (a.k.a. Nannie)
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