* Between The Sea (the Med) and The Alps -- {Pronounce: ontruh la mair eh lay zalp}

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

On being Mamie & Papy

On being Mamie & Papy 01

 

We just had the occasion to play Grandma and Grandpa to our second grandson, now 14 months old.  Not only is he currently the most adorable baby on earth, he's at an adorable learning stage.  We have so many cute photos, this will be the first of several posts in order to share as many as possible with all of you.

 

On being Mamie & Papy 02
Hello, World, I'm Diggle
My summer memories of Paris are mostly of gloom and cool temps, except for the occasional heat wave containing the whole summer's worth of warmth all at once.  We arrived at our son's new house during one of those heat waves, so we have lots of shiny face pictures and minimal clothing!

We haven't seen Diggle since last Thanksgiving, so it was fun to see how he's developing and changing.  While most people see a lot of his father in him, I remember what his father looked like at this age, and I see a lot of his mother, too.  But he's not a clone of anybody, he's definitely his own person, and he has oodles of personality as well as looks.  What a heartbreaker he's going to be one day!

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Ready to take off
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Oops!
He's only been walking for about two weeks, so sometimes the process doesn't quite work out.  He couldn't get back up without something to pull up with, but he was so adept at getting himself to such a thing (table, playpen, wall, hand, leg) that we didn't even realize that's what he had to do.
 

One of his pleasures in life are bubbles.  He finds them quite fascinating at the moment.

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Bubbles, bubbles, everywhere!
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Ooh, almost as big as me!
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Yay, bubbles!
 
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What does a doggy say?
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Airplane!
While he's still way too young to be talking any intelligible vocabulary, although he's quite adept at that mysterious baby language, we picked up on two very distinctive words or actions.  There is a dog in the neighborhood, and we can tell by his mouth when he hears it and tries to say "woof."  The new house is directly under the nearby airport's (Orly) flight path, and he loves to point to the planes when they pass (which is all the time!).  It became a real game for us to share with him.
 
We think he's quite precocious, and he can be pretty pleased with himself, too.  We probably weren't there long enough to see all his current tricks, and I'm sure his abilities improve daily anyway, but it was fun watching him attempting and achieving. 
 
On being Mamie & Papy 14
Look, I did it all by myself!
 
One afternoon at lunch (and he's a great eater, just like his father was), we had one of many occasions to play the airplane game.  I don't know if his parents play it with him, but we had a great time all weekend, as we were never short of opportunity!
 
Another way to play with him is to get into his playpen world with him.  We are from the generation that rebelled against cages for children, so we never had one in the house.  Eventually, I wondered if one might have been nice sometimes, especially as the portable ones came out on the market.  Diggle has a good understanding of when he's been dumped into it as a punishment and when it's his marvelous playland.  What a great evolution from being stuck in one (our childhood) or having no "safe time out" for the adults (our parenthood).
 
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More "Airplane!"
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Grandmas are fun to play with
 
We were there long enough that Diggle started getting familiar with us, and he climbed into his grandpa's lap all by himself.  He's already showing an interest in doing online crossword puzzles, which his grandpa got hooked on from his papa (although crossword puzzles in general are deeply engrained in the family for generations).  It was always Doc Leo's job as a parent to read stories to the kids, including a lot of Dr. Seuss (it helped that we got books monthly in the mail!), so it was fun for him to do it all over again with the latest generation.

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My turn to guess the word!
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Who is that cat in the hat?
 
Stay tuned for the next installment of our weekend visit with the family.

4 comments:

  1. How fun!! And what a great age!! I hope you have a photo of you and Craig with the baby!

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  2. What great pictures and what an adorable little guy! How nice that you got to spend this time with him! We just got back from Texas and a visit with Jessie and Emily! Jessie is 6 now and Emily turned 4 the day we arrived. Grandkids are absolutely the best!

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  3. Oh my. Yes indeed, he is a cutie. And it looks like such a fun and rewarding time with him.

    ReplyDelete

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