Sunday, January 30, 2011

Can you see me now?


I’ve been working at home for three or four weeks having fun and a good time with Elijah, my almost 4 year old grandson who’s living with us.

We play together a lot and one of Eli’s favorite games is for us to sit in our walk-in closet, in the dark, taking pretend trips on boats, airplanes, cars and motorcycles, sometimes stopping to eat his favorite foods, ice cream sundaes, corn dogs and macaroni and cheese …each of us takes turns driving…we learn to drive when we go on green light, slow down on yellows and stop on the red lights…once in a while he’ll pretend to do the cooking and make whatever we had for breakfast, lunch or dinner earlier…

Sometimes he’ll want to play big bad wolf or little red riding hood; we take turns being the wolf …in the dark he has fun making wolf noises and most of all he likes to say he isn’t afraid of the dark…

I remember teaching my daughters not to be afraid of the dark by taking them into the garage, turning off the light, walking around by feeling the car and work bench and getting safely back to the door …OK, you’re probably thinking what a weird dad or grandpa I am, but as a little kid when my dad babysat us he played hide and go seek with me and my sister, and when we were ‘it’ and his turn to hide he’d hide behind a door, turn off all the lights and scare the crap out of us when we walked into rooms…we were maybe around three years old and my sister hated him for years later…when I got married and had children I told myself to teach my kids not be afraid of the dark.

Elijah and I do other things beside hide in the closet…we have terrific times at the park where he rides his two-wheel Skoot bike, plays on swings and snacks on ice cream, candy and other junk I buy on the way to the park…I’ll try to remember to bring carrots and healthy stuff one of these days…

Its fun getting him tuckered out ready for a nap when we get home…once in a while I join him in a snooze too but it’s usually a good time for me to do some work…

I love being a grandpa, much more so these days than years ago when my wife took care of some of our other grand kids…back then I got back from work after they left and I hardly saw them…

I like working at home…and I owe it all to the great recession.

Who would have guessed?

3 comments:

BUM said...

For 50 years I have laughed at your jokes and love reading your very funny insights. It's nice to see that you are still the funnyest man I know. It is interesting to have you at home full time...it's a good thing that you have a good sense of humor...You're going to need it !!!! And you are NEVER boring !!!! Love ya'

Julie Hibbard said...

Resilience.
Guess I know where I learned it.

Stephanie said...

I love that you're such a great Grandpa-it's so sweet that you hang out with Eli and play his games. Love you Pete.