I’ve had a couple very entertaining days with Little B and Nana, me being Napa.
Parents have been traveling, and I can’t hide a bit of pride that he hasn’t fussed about them not being around at all. A couple FaceTime calls, and it was no biggie, he’s at home with us and we’re, well, we’re Nana & Napa, ‘nough side.
You know a couple years back he was tiny bundle of miracles and potential, just getting his bearings, a little spirit learning how to inhabit its body, and a body that’s trying to figure out how to master itself. Eye’s taking in everything, body fidgeting and growing and connecting with itself and then the world around it, right in front of your eyes. I mean I was blessed with watching his body spend months learning the prerequisites to crawling, and how that evolved into walking. So very cool.
And the innocence, the dependence, that tiny flawless body folding into ya, trust and love and dependence, and the caregiving. The being nurturer and witness to life unfolding and blossoming.
Here we are two years later and I had occasion to laugh at the contrast between then and now. {But first some background, B’s Dad, my son-in-law was a single child of a single mother. They got a long well, and from earliest he was neat, later he added punctual to the neat and clean. Never scared of housework, nowadays he’s winding up doing the most of it, because it matters the most to him. Nothing neurotic, just all-American clean guy, as opposed to a chaotic tramp (as in vagabond) sorta spirit like me.
Back to now. My task was to hang with the 2 year old, have fun, be safe. Toys galore. Wife and I make a good tag team, so no worries.
Little B’s not into talking. He’s not slow, sharp as a whip, laughs every time we try coaxing a word out of him. It’s a big joke to him ( truth be known, no one’s worried about it either, we’re enjoying the silence, before the storm of questions and commands inundate us.). Incidentally, or not, he’s learned a little sign language at his day care {Excuse me, it’s not “that” any more, it’s “School”}, okay so he comes home knowing basic sign language, ‘thank you’, ‘come,’ ‘go’, ‘that way’, ‘you’, ‘not you her’, ‘I want you’, ‘all gone’ – the family joke, now he doesn’t need to learn to talk at all, because he sure knows how to communicate already.
And he does. So, you think we were spending the day playing with his toys?
Not even, except for a few short lived diversions. We spent the day vacuuming and cleaning, with Little B being one hell of a task master. He’s got his plan, even if it changes a lot. Some of it was done with his cleaning toys, but most with the real thing. He’d step in to show us how it’s done, then step back and expect us to finish the area while he supervised. With two dogs, it wasn’t a wasted exercise, amazing how much one can suck out of rugs. He’d let you know if the work wasn’t up to snuff, and didn’t mind pointing out a missed spot. And the way he’d direct us around, was a precious hoot, I’ll cherish forever. No temper tantrums, a couple close calls, one in particular that I feel good about defusing – it was special moment, like he reconnected some earlier memory flash and sense of trust, and he gave himself into relaxing into a smile, and a fun moment flying through the room. To land in a new place with a fresh attitude.
That felt good.
Hope you don’t mind me sharing, just wanted to see if I could write down a memory,
and at least I’ll be able to revisit it sometimes, though if anyone else has their stories, you could share.
