P.S. A Column On Things

Grandson: Less or Fewer

First, a quick note. He is now in pre-K. On Halloween his school had a parade so parents could see all the costumes, He wasn’t very happy about it, but walked around the blacktop twice. He did smile when he saw his mom and me.

Later, he asked me to tighten his seat belt fewer. I said, “Less.” He said, “I know the rule. Fewer for things you can count, less for things you can’t count.”

I responded with examples: fewer dolls, less water.

He thought for a moment, then said, “You could count water if you froze it and broke it into pieces.”

I was deeply impressed. I doubt that answer would have come to me at age 4.

My Grandson: Figures of Speech

A recent development is my grandson’s sharp interest in figures of speech. Any time an adult near him says something that is not literal, he  questions them immediately. His mother and I were discussing whether she should “swing by” the pharmacy on the way home.

“We don’t have a swing, and even if we did, it wouldn’t reach there,” he said, literally.

Or when I told him we’d do something until “The cows came home.” His response: “We don’t have cows.”

I don’t remember how I learned to recognize figures of speech, and I wish someone had created a journal like this for me so I could go back and watch it happen.

Grandkids: Fuzzy Sticks

My Grandson

I engaged in a little grandfatherly overindulgence recently. We were playing with fuzzy sticks, a craft item that was called pipe cleaners back in my day, since that is what they were originally used for. He was making an elaborate project from his large bag of fuzzy sticks, then became determined he needed brown and white.

Thanks to Instacart, he had them two hours later, and I paid for them. I still don’t understand why no other color would do. But Art does as it will. And now, a few months later, he watches fuzzy stick YouTube videos with his babysitter, and has moved on to advanced work. Probably because of the sticks I speedily provided him that night.

Grandkids-Palooza

My vignettes are piling up. Here are a few:

My Granddaughter

She was throwing everything on the floor. Thanks to a suggestion from Robert Malchman, I have purchased a grabber, so she has to throw farther to beat me at her own game.

Random phrases are not talking, but when she finishes eating now, she says, clearly, “I’m Done.”

My grandson
When I was visiting the other day, he he did a side plank and a rear plank (exercise moves. Look them up). Both times he said “This is easy Abba,” but I responded “only for you”

My daughter asked me to limit my grandson's TV watching yesterday by telling me to limit his time on the Fernsehapparat (a ridiculous German compound word meaning far-seeing apparatus) a word she learned from me. At the age of 5, my grandson is already catching on to pig Latin, and my French is execrable (Marlow's German is non-existent), leaving us only a handful of deception options.

Grandkids: First Day For Both

For the first day of pre-k for my grandson and daycare for his sister, their mother posed them next to a chalk board that included “what you want to be when you grow up.” My grandson spoke for himself: “engineer,” (like his dad), but my daughter didn’t know what to say on the 14-month-old’s board. Her brother suggested “writer,” and my daughter chose the similar word “author.” At age 14 months, our granddaughter didn’t have much to say about it

My Grandson: Rainbows

Then there are rainbows. Right now he is REALLY enjoying rainbows. He knows the colors by heart. (I still have to use the mnemonic Roy G. Biv to get the colors in the right order). He draws them constantly, usually in the correct order, sometimes in creative alternatives.

He loves to see them in nature. In the spray from a garden hose. In the sky: double rainbows and circular rainbows are his favorites.

Grandkids: Walking

My Granddaughter

Right on time at the age of 14 months, she has started taking independent steps. Not too many at this point, but still, a developmental landmark. She can walk quite a distance with some help from grandma and her brother

Grandkid Stories

My Grandson

He likes cherries. He REALLY likes cherries. Since neither of his parents are as crazy about them as I am, I can only assume he comes by this preference via my example.

He likes cherries so much he has his own cherry pitter, and enjoys pitting them, and, like me, eating about as many as he throws in the bowl.

Grandkid

My Grandson

On “Letter Y” day I bought some yellow yarn for him  to show, but it came too late. He had showed Yoda, which his classmates found suitably impressive.

His father and I showed him how to draw three flags representing his heritage. That got him really interested in international flags. He drew all the tricolors and two-color flags.

Then, he drew the easy U.S. flags. I told about the phrase “Big Blue Bed Sheets,” a term of derision for all-blue state flags with the state seal on them. Thus, we did not do Oregon or Washington. The bear on the California flag makes it too hard to draw. We had a lot of fun with New Mexico, Texas and Alabama (all quire simple). “This is fun,” he said, as he choose to draw flags over any other activity.

Grandkids

My Granddaughter

She’ developing quite an arm. She looks any adult firmly in the eye, then grabs a spoon, a bowl, some food or a toy and throws it directly to the ground, to her own nearly endless amusement; she cracks a big smile and laugh as the big people go chasing the object of her toss. So, I bought a grabber to pick up the discarded objects.