My wife and I have three boys who are all married and we are fortunate to have four grandchildren and two more on the way! I love being a grandfather and to be honest, I think I love my grandchildren more than I did my own boys when they were this age. Partly, because now I have the time to listen to all the funny things they say. I thought I would share some of the fun things I have heard from them.
As it happens the parents of my first daughter-in-law wanted to be called Grandma and Grandpa, so we settled for Nana and Papa. One day my grandson asked me, “Papa, why don”t you and Nana have names like the rest of us?”
I have another granddaughter named Arabella and she”s a precocious 2-and-a-half-year-old. One day she asked, “Papa, how old are you?” I replied, “Well how old do you think I am?” She said, 10. You”re 10 years old.” “Nope” I replied. “I”m 62 years old.” “62. I don”t even know that number.”
I once asked if she knew her whole name and she proudly stated, “Arabella Grace Come Here You Rascal.”
Arabella”s mother is a wonderful woman who started potty training very early. As a caring grandfather I always try to say something so she knows I think potty training is important. One day while she was on the potty I called in and said, “Don”t forget to wipe.” She called back. “I did that first.”
She took to potty training very well and by the age of 2 she went without diapers most of the day. One time when we were at a restaurant I took her to the bathroom and as she was sitting in the stall balanced precariously on the front edge of the toilet she heard the man in the stall next to us start to pee. She clapped her hands and shouted out encouragement, “Good potty!”
We have another 2-year-old granddaughter, named Sahara, who lives in Phoenix. We don”t get to see her often enough, so we try to Skype with them as frequently as possible. Those of you who use Skype know that if you don”t face the computer directly your words are often lost. One time when Sahara was talking I couldn”t quite make out what she was saying, and I kept asking her, “What did you say? What did you say?” Exasperated, she finally faced the computer and said, “Papa, you”re not listening loud enough.”
Our two oldest grandchildren, Fiona who is 5 and Cael who is 4, live in Occidental just west of Santa Rosa, which is an hour-and-a-half from here. Often when we go see them we end up taking them out for a meal in Santa Rosa. One day we went to the International House of Pancakes and our grandson wanted to order for himself. Since he can”t yet read a menu, we discussed the different options and when the waitress came to take our order, he ordered a short stack of pancakes and one egg. The server asked him how he would like that and he said, “Well, you know, on a plate!”
At that same restaurant we ran into some friends of theirs who were also eating. My grandson said, “This is my Papa and Nana.” The father of the family replied, “They don”t look old enough to be your grandparents.” Then my grandson replied, “Oh, they”re old enough.”
We decided to take our grandchildren to the beach. There are only a few ways to get to the coast from Lakeport and we took highway 253 from Ukiah to 128 rather than drive down highway 101 to get to 128. If you”re not familiar with 253, it”s a bumpy, twisty back road up and over the mountains. I explained this to the kids, by saying, “There are only three roads you can take to get to the beach from here.” Where upon my brilliant granddaughter piped up, “Yes, and this isn”t one of them.”
Our children like us to read bedtime stories to the grandchildren and they seem to really enjoy it. I asked my granddaughter “Why?” one day and she said, it was because our stories always keep them from sleeping.
My wife has started telling them “Stories from her mind” which means that she makes them up on the spur of the moment instead of reading from a book. One day Fiona said, “Nana has to be very smart to remember all those stories.”
Of course, before we leave the bedroom we always give each one bedtime kisses. At first they would wipe them off but then one day they stopped doing that. I asked Fiona why and she said, “If we wipe them off we get even wetter kisses.”
In our family my wife thinks it”s her responsibility to correct any embellishment that I might give a tale. One day I asked Fiona what she thought about Nana always interrupting me. She said, “It sounds funny but she likes facts.”
I”m sure that those of you who are grandparents can relate to these stories and you probably have many of your own. Those of you who are not yet grandparents, look forward to it! Let me assure you, there really is something very special about being a grandparent and I encourage you to do everything in your power to keep your grandchildren close enough to be able to participate n their lives and interact with them on a regular basis. I retired and moved from Kentucky just for that reason and to me it was worth it!
Bruce Maxwell
Lakeport
