Puppets in the Library with Allison Taylor-McBryde

Grandparents Survival Guide

There are many Blogs on the web about Parenting.  But no one Blogs about ’US’ the grandparents.

1^st – Keep in shape, exercise every day, every week and the week after. Because when your grandchild arrives, you’ll want to be able to run as fast as he/she can. Climb a tree to fetch the kite, and rescue him/her when they can’t get down from one of those new climbing nets at the park.

Pixabay

2^nd – Grandparents are allowed to give in, sometimes, because we are grandparents, remember? AND we usually give in when we have no strength left to say no. We typically say, “Only this time, but don't tell Mom or Dad, it’s our secret. Uh-oh! Wrong, children are honest by nature, and the first thing they're going to do is tell their parents when you bring them back home, is, “Grandpa/ma let me do this!”

Pixabay

3^rd -There are distinct kinds of parents, 

• the ones that want their children to obey to all rules, which equals NO FUN.
• the ones that don’t want their kids to get dirty and are afraid of them getting hurt, NO FUN.
• and the ones that don’t mind in what shape their kids come home just as long as they’ve had a good time with their grandparents. SUPER.

The latter is my case, thank goodness. I have warned my grandchild's parents that if they want me to babysit, that child is going to play in the mud, he/she might scratch his knee while playing, and we’ll go for walks in the woods no matter what kind of critters we may encounter.

4^th – Beware of toy stores. I walked into a toy store looking for an educational game for my grandchild, Kevin, age 2 ½ and came out with this.

 It’s sitting in my living room. See the tunnel? Well then, guess what?

I had to crawl through the tunnel to make him happy and got stuck; well let’s be honest, I wanted to go through the tunnel. The good thing is that I called out for help and two tiny hands reached out to help me. Has your heart melted yet? Mine did. 

Toddler’s don’t realize that we are much older and not as agile as they are. They probably think we are Houdini.

Then I could smell something and asked my grandchild, did you dirty your diaper? “No,” Kevin answered with a smirk on his face. So, I invented a story.

Kevin, if we don’t change your diaper mamma dragon will smell it. Kevin’s eyes peered into mine in amazement. I put my finger to my lips and said “Shhhhh. Hurry, let’s change your diaper before mamma dragon finds us. Pee-yew stinky poop.” Giggle-giggle.

Kevin wasn’t scared at all but went along with the charade. Now and then he does the same, “Shhhh, the dragon.” He whispers as he tiptoes around the house looking for the dragon.

Grandparents are kids at heart, and we have the excuse to act like kids because we want to entertain our grandchildren. Right? I love this part. We also get to watch cartoons or kids movies.

Toddler’s see us as superheroes and friends. The human figure that is patient and spoils them. 

When Mom and Dad come home from work and have had a long day, I can understand that they don’t have much patience left for their toddlers. The kids want attention, they’ve been in PreK all day, playing, pushing and shoving, learning how to survive with other toddlers. When they don’t get the attention they thrive for, they act up, throw things on the floor. It’s normal. When ignored, mine cries out “I want grandma/pa.”

There you go.  My grandchild lives downstairs, and I can sometimes hear him cry. Shortly after I hear a knock at the door, who could it be?

I open the door, and that smile melts my heart once again. It doesn’t matter if I’m busy cooking a meal or ironing. I let Kevin in and play. 

Dinner still has to be prepared before grandpa comes back from work, so, I have Kevin help me. I pull up a chair near the counter and hand him a potato with cloves and have him create a face. On other occasions, I give him dough or whatever I am preparing at the time and keep him busy. Pots and pans have come in handy, add a handful of clothespins and listen to the music.

In any case, when he visits which is almost every day, it gives me an excuse to stop whatever I’m doing and relax, more or less. Let’s say; I set aside daily chores to cherish those precious moments with my grandchild that is so eager to play and learn something with his grandparent.

 The joy of being grandparents.

Leave a comment if you have time. What do you do to keep your grandchild busy and happy?

Do you have aches and pains the day after? Is it because you also climbed a tree?

Share your stories with me. I would love to hear from you.

Take care.

How I got the idea for my picture book, ‘Jurassic Rat.’ Pub. Clear Fork Publishing

I was surfing the web for information on rats. Roof rats had invaded my roof. Consequently, I wanted to find a way to persuade them to leave. I don’t like to poison the poor things.

Then I came upon this significant discovery; ‘ A Chinese Super Rat Roamed Earth 160 million years ago.’

A FOSSIL of the oldest known ancestor of modern rats had been unearthed in China.

Bingo! Jurassic Rat was born.

I realized that no one had written about an insignificant rat that managed to hide from gigantic dinosaurs and still be alive today. Although, modern rats anatomy are slightly different from their ancestors - then again, so are humans, in respect to their ancestors.

 Aren’t we, Homo sapiens, physically diverse from the Neanderthal man, or farther away in time, from the Australopithecus afarensis, named Lucy? If you click on the links, can you notice the difference? I bet you can.

 Did you know that rats are the most evolved class of animals known as mammalians?

May I name a few of the most common for you?

1-      Roof rat, (Rattus rattus) also called the black rat or tree rat for the reason that they can climb trees and not only. Mine climbed up the power lines to reach the bird feeder in the winter, on the second floor. Wow! What an acrobat. Isn't it cute?

2-      Norway rat, (Rattus norvegicus) They love to steal a free meal from my dog’s bowl.

 This little guy above is a skeleton of a Norway rat. No worry, it died by natural causes. I think my cat caught it. I buried it in a paper box. Two months later I dug up the grave to find that the necrophagous insects had done a brilliant job. There lay only the rats bones and a few tuffs of fur. I brushed off some dirt and debris, then I assemble the skeleton. (I wore a mask and gloves)  Don’t get grossed out; this is called science. We learn a lot from bones.

If you want to read more about rats, click here. 

How many of you have domestic rats for pets? Have you noticed how ingenious they are? Let me know. I would love to hear from you. Have any of you ever thought of becoming an anthropologist or a paleontologist when you grow up?

Oh! I forgot to mention that the roof rats moved out after I introduced them to my cat, Giant. In Italian, we call him Gigante.

The picture book 'Jurassic Rat' is coming out in spring 2019, Published by Clear Fork Publishing 

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