I Scarred My Grandson
Scarred, scared--it works either way.
It started with the nesting dolls pictured above which our youngest son Scott brought back from Russia a few years ago. We volunteered to babysit our grandson Grant one day last week when his usual daycare provider was out of town.
That meant keeping him entertained, or at least occupied, for better than eight hours while his parents toiled with their day jobs. Turns out that Grant gravitated to me for entertainment as I gave him horsey rides on my knee, carried him into the kitchen to ring our dinner bell, and helped him play with whatever toy interested him at the moment. Wendy handled the feeding, the changing, the rocking to sleep, etc.
I should add that Wendy and I have been waiting to witness his major milestone. He has taken his first steps, but neither my wife nor I had seen the little guy put even two steps together. When he's at our place, it's rug rat city.
Anyway, I'm showing Grant the Russian nesting dolls, opening a bigger doll and letting Grant pull out the smaller doll inside. This went on until Grant got hold of the tiniest doll which fit neatly inside his fingers. I should have seen what was coming next, but it's been a long time since I've watched a baby.
Grant promptly put that tiny doll into his mouth or, rather, tried to. As soon as I saw Grant open his mouth and bring his fist to his mouth I cried out, "Noooooooooooooooooo!"
And the little guy stopped. Wow, quite obedient. In fact, so obedient that he would not so much as touch any of the dolls from that time forward. He just looked at me as I took one out of the other. Even when I invited him to take out one himself, he wouldn't do it.
Okay, so fast forward to sometime later. Grant is busy going from one toy to the next, crawling on the floor, occasionally standing or pulling himself up to the coffee table, or getting on one knee a la Tebow (see picture below).
Then, almost like he didn't realize what he was doing, he turned around and took a couple steps just like a todder would.
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" I called out with proud grandfatherly excitement.
I realize now that 'oh' sounds a lot like 'no.' Upon hearing me shout out, Grant immediately sat down and turned to me as if to ask, "What did I do now?"
Wendy deadpanned, "Great, he'll never walk again."
Awwwww, he'll get over it. Babies have short memories, don't they?
posted by Big Dave T @ 6:02 PM
14 Comments:
Why would your son buy Russian dolls? That seems a bit odd, maybe some father issues while growing up?
That shirts might give him nightmares in years to come.
ANONYMOUS--I think the nesting dolls are everywhere tourists go in Russia, so you've got to buy them to prove you were there. It's like tourists having to buy the nesting pyramids when they visit Egypt.
JAN--Heh, heh. Well, Grant's mom went to Eastern but I'd rather see him wear more maize 'n blue myself.
(( )) Dave. We all do something to scar/scare our kids and then our grandkids. while my sneeze entertained dyl to the point where he laughed so hysterically that he'd fall over and have tears in his eyes, Aidan thought there was something horrible happening to me and cried everytime he'd look over at me!
I cracked up seeing that shirt on him too..so funny in YOUR HOUSE to have another school represented. Glad you cleared that up.. Yeah toddlers have to be watched every minute..things always always end up in the MOUTH! Yikes! : )
CARINE--I remembered the time my grandson first heard me sneeze. He looked at me with such disgust you would have thought I'd done something much worse.
CAROLDEE--I understand that Grant does have a couple Michigan State t-shirts, but dad says he won't be wearing those.
Dave.. came by to see if you had posted and were okay. Pictures of the tornado and damage near Ann Arbor look terrible. Have no idea how close you were to them but hope you and your family are SAFE..let us know okay??? ^j^
CAROLDEE--Thanks for thinking of me, Carol. We lost power for about six hours. Got some hail and some spooky looking clouds went overhead but the damage appears to be all in and near Dexter, which is about 15 miles away from us.
Thank goodness you came out of those storms undamaged.Close enough I would say..hope the rest of the spring is UN-eventful!
Take care!
Happy St. Patrick's Day, Dave! Will you be going GREEN? Green with nausea or envy perhaps?
And, to think that all this time I thought your enemy was Ohio State!
(Tim Tebow was homeschooled through high school, by the way.) SPARTANS know stuff!
CAROLDEE--When a tornado hits this close in March, I'm kinda scared to see spring.
YOGA IN MIRRORMONT--Happy St. Patrick's Day back and congrats on beating Brooklyn and St. Louis, two of the bigger basketball powers in the NCAA (not).
But I'm not envious since Michigan's Kellen Russell won his second consecutive national championship (wrestling) this weekend. You know what wrestlers say . . . better to have wrestled and lost than to have played basketball and dribbled in your shorts.
This comment has been removed by the author.
I love the shirt! My oldest grandson had a full ride to Eastern on scholarship, which led to three years working for a govenor in Washington, which led to a J.D. from Penn Law, which led to a great job in NYC. U of M is great, but not everything. (I liked their doctors)
Now, about that tornado....we had a devastating one that went through Milbury, Ohio and took out the high school and the police station among lots of other things. Even with loss of life and all the mess, the government refused to declare an emergency, because all the neighboring communities banded together to help clean up. Even the jail inmates and a college football team worked to clear the debris. Americans come through when the politicians are standing around with their fingers up their noses!
P.S. I forgot to say that Grant is adorable!
Post a Comment
<< Home