Little kids and grandparents

Lynn found this in her Facebook account.  I messed with the format some.  At first, I managed to get a file of 80 pages each with a single column of letters. 

How young children perceive their grandparents. 

1. I was in the bathroom, putting on my makeup, under the watchful eyes of my young granddaughter, as I'd done many times before. After I applied my lipstick and started to leave, the little one said, "But Grandma, you forgot to kiss the toilet paper good-bye!" I will probably never put lipstick on again without thinking about kissing the toilet paper good-bye....

2. My young grandson called the other day to wish me Happy Birthday. He asked me how old I was, and I told him, 68. My grandson was quiet for a moment, and then he asked, "Did you start at 1?" 

3. After putting her grandchildren to bed, a grandmother changed into old slacks and a droopy blouse and proceeded to wash her hair. As she heard the children getting more and more rambunctious, her patience grew thin. Finally, she threw a towel around her head and stormed into their room, putting them back to bed with stern warnings. As she left the room, she heard the three-year-old say with a trembling voice, "Who was THAT?" 

4. A grandmother was telling her little granddaughter what her own childhood was like. "We used to skate outside on a pond. I had a swing made from a tire; it hung from a tree in our front yard. We rode our pony. We picked wild raspberries in the woods." The little girl was wide-eyed, taking this all in. At last she said, "I sure wish I'd gotten to know you sooner!" 

5. My grandson was visiting one day when he asked, "Grandma, do you know how you and God are alike?" I mentally polished my halo and I said, "No, how are we alike?'' "You're both old," he replied.

6.  A little girl was diligently pounding away on her grandfather's word processor. She told him she was writing a story. "What's it about?" he asked. "I don't know," she replied. "I can't read."

7.  I didn't know if my granddaughter had learned her colors yet, so I decided to test her. I would point out something and ask what color it was. She would tell me and was always correct. It was fun for me, so I continued. At last, she headed for the door, saying, "Grandma, I really think you should try to figure out some of these colors yourself!" 

8. When my grandson Billy and I entered our vacation cabin, we kept the lights off until we were inside to keep from attracting pesky insects. Still, a few fireflies followed us in. Noticing them before I did, Billy whispered, "It's no use Grandpa. Now the mosquitoes are coming after us with flashlights." 

9. When my grandson asked me how old I was, I teasingly replied, "I'm not sure." "Look in your underwear, Grandpa," he advised "Mine says I'm 4 to 6." (WOW! I really like this one -- it says I'm only '38'!) 

10. A second grader came home from school and said to her grandmother, "Grandma, guess what? We learned how to make babies today." The grandmother, more than a little surprised, tried to keep her cool. "That's interesting." she said. "How do you make babies?" "It's simple," replied the girl. "You just change 'y' to 'i' and add 'es'." 

11. Children's Logic: "Give me a sentence about a public servant," said a teacher. The small boy wrote: "The fireman came down the ladder pregnant." The teacher took the lad aside to correct him. "Don't you know what pregnant means?" she asked. "Sure," said the young boy confidently. 'It means carrying a child." 

12. A grandfather was delivering his grandchildren to their home one day when a fire truck zoomed past. Sitting in the front seat of the fire truck was a Dalmatian dog. The children started discussing the dog's duties. "They use him to keep crowds back," said one child. "No," said another. "He's just for good luck." A third child brought the argument to a close. "They use the dogs," she said firmly, "to find the fire hydrants." 

13. A 6-year-old was asked where his grandma lived. "Oh," he said, "she lives at the airport, and whenever we want her, we just go get her. Then, when we're done having her visit, we take her back to the airport." 

14. Grandpa is the smartest man on earth! He teaches me good things, but I don't get to see him enough to get as smart as him! 

15. My Grandparents are funny, when they bend over, you hear gas leaks and they blame their dog. 

Toddlers and joy

We attend a large group exercise class at the local Y. As we leave, we walk past a large window into the toddler room.  I make a point of looking at the little kids at play.  Many philosophers have counseled attending to one's surroundings and concentrating on the miracle of it all.   These little kids are way ahead at doing that.  I can see them look at a chair, a toy, a companion with amazement.  How did it, he, she, they get like that?  What are they doing? Can I do that?

I feel a joy rise in me, seeing the way they walk, cooperate, oppose, ignore, worship - all in less than a minute.

Naming a newborn

I read a few years ago that one or more African nations had passed laws that a baby could not be named too weirdly.  I am just writing to drop a word of encouragement for naming a child with a somewhat traditional name, not something too weird.  I have just read in the last few days that Elon Musk has 12 o3 13 children with a set of four different mothers.  I guess one of his children is named "X".  I hope that changes.

If we pause and think about the experience of growing up, we can recognize the value of an ordinary name.  The guys at lunch were discussing the idea of naming a child with a word to remember the circumstances and conditions in effect at the time of the birth.  One common was a name of "Broken rubber" for a child that was not supposed to have been created.  I recommend not using that name. 

CNN Photos of the Week 2/16/2025

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/13/world/gallery/photos-this-week-february-6-february-13

My art focused on corners

Lynn is a member of a cooperative of artists so I get plenty of contact with painters, jewelers, photographers, sculptors, potters and such. I came up with a theme of my own art but she doubted I would be accepted as a member.  She had her doubts before she had even seen one piece of my art, mostly because I haven't actually made any (and I likely will not).  

What I imagine might be some art I could produce, given my lack of persistence and my relatively short attention span, would be visual art.  Photographs, to be more exact.  When I was in the 4th grade, I had a little hobby of photography, the older kind that needed to be worked on in a darkroom, and involved a liquid developer and a liquid stabilizer and a clothesline of drying pieces of special paper.  Things have changed since then.  Now I take pictures, in color not black-and-white and they are immediately finished.  Much simpler and faster.

So, what kind of photos?  I was thinking "corners".  As I looked around, I saw many right angle corners that I could take a picture of: boxes, books, computer equipment, furniture, buildings, etc.  I envision being hailed for a steady stream of photos of corners.  I mean beautiful women, handsome men, dogs, babies, kittens and such have been done and done and done. When I was first learning to meditate, I needed a visual anchor and it was easy to focus on corners of all kinds, all over the place.  So, my art will concentrate on corners high and low, here and there.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you have already had some celebration of love, affection, friendship and charity, the four loves discussed by C.S. Lewis in his "The Four Loves".  I imagine that many other fine and helpful books and other inspiring sources exist.  Various articles are available on increasing one's ability to get into understanding and maybe even learning something from those that take a different approach to who or what is loveable.

Today and maybe the next few days seem like as good a time as any to recall who you love and let them know you are thinking fondly of them.

Ginger in the morning

I like the books written by Prof. Andrew Weil.  In one of them, he advocates eating some ginger each day.  I buy 5 lbs of sugared ginger from Amazon and have a piece each morning.  I think I remember him writing that doing that was a good idea since ginger has molecules that the body appreciates and doesn't get much of in any other way.  I have read that for most people drinking coffee can be beneficial and I usually drink at least two a day. I know that tea is also a popular drink and I often have a cup at the same time as the ginger.  A friend of mine inspired me to add 6 almonds and others advocated for a small piece of dark chocolate.  Recently, I tried some salted pepitas and liked them so they are now a regular addition.