Friday, March 11, 2011
I Am Grateful for Rain, Orange Semi Trucks, and Rusty Nails
I Am Being a Grandmother This Week
I am being a grandma this week. It is a most excellent experience. I have had the opportunity to get to know better my grandson Jon. He is two and three months old and understands Greek, English and is able to communicate with his parents quite effectively in ASL. His passion is cars, trucks, cars, trains, cars, ice cream, cars . . . and, oh yes, cars. There are COOL CARS and NEW CARS and FOO CARS [a clone of the Greek word for truck and his generic label for wheeled vehicles]. Trains are CHOO CHOO! and tractors are GRUMMM GRUMM [sounded back and deep in the throat]. He puts himself to sleep by singing the ABC Song with lyrics of CAR CAR CAR CAR CAR CAR CAR . . . [you get the idea] or MA-MA MA-MA MA-MA MAAAA [again, you get the idea] and has the CARS DVD memorized. He is also a fan of SHAUN THE SHEEP—which I take credit for, since he first experienced this creation while visiting at my home. A DVD of Thomas the Tank Engine short stories is also one of the choices he picks to watch some times. His mom limits his DVD time to under an hour a day—most frequently watched in 15 minute intervals throughout the day. His day is full, with little time to sit still watching someone else’s creativity. He will lay for a long time on his stomach on the carpet—lining up 8 or 9 cars or train engines or small trucks. His mom says that she loves watching him when his does this—pushing the line of vehicles back and forth, changing one car for another in the line. He is a thoughtful young man, pressing his index finger on his lower lip and chin as he considers an idea or situation before him. He is visually oriented—like his mom he can sit quietly and happily looking at an intricately illustrated page and pointing out items he notices, making the signs for some of them or for their colour.