The family next door to us has quite a menagerie of people and pets living there, as I’ve noted before. Last year one of the owner’s daughters moved back home with her own four-year-old in tow and assorted pets. Over the months, we became acquainted with the unusually bright and inquisitive little girl, and now she seems to have adopted us as ancillary grandparents. She’s always excited to see us and comes over to “hang out” from time to time. We just got back from 30 days in the SW and she came over last night to talk to us. Then, as she was leaving, she hugged me.
Now all this may not seem all that unusual, but I’m notoriously bad with small children. I usually avoid them at all costs, including my own grandchildren. I just don’t have the grandpa gene, I guess. But I’m touched by her innocence and obvious affection for us. Just thought I’d share. Hmpf…now I’m going to go find a puppy to kick. My image, you know.
The first time I visited my friends in their new house, their little daughter grabbed me by one finger and pulled me out to the living room. “Will you play with me?” I was captivated.
When I was 4 or so, I adopted our next-door neighbors, an older couple with no kids of their own (though they had raised their nephew, then an adult). I spent practically every waking moment with them until they moved away when I was 9.
I was staying with a friend when her sister came to visit. Their sister’s two year old boy took one look at me, toddled over and hugged my knees. I wasn’t at all used to kids at the time so I was kind of bemused, which turned into feeling flattered when they said they’d just come from the paternal inlaws. Apparently Grandad was a rather unpleasant character and the little boy wouldn’t go near him. See, they said, pointing at their little boy giving me a knee hug, he’s a good judge of character
I usually (always) get along with little girls better than with boys. Girls are almost always more mature nearly from birth it seems. Boys are usually hellions right out of the womb and I get annoyed with them very quickly. I have zero tolerance for assholish behavior, be it from a child or adult, so I tend to keep them at arm’s length.
Want me to break your heart? She’s probably being fed by everyone in the neighborhood, and they all consider her “theirs”. Wait, I thought you were talking about a cat
Ha! She came over yesterday while my wife was away, so I had to entertain her: not easy for me, as I’m not really comfortable in that role. But we ended up using an old water-color set and painting in her coloring book. It was actually fun, and I taught her the color wheel.
Growing up, we had neighbors with two children, both old enough to be out of the house <almost; one was in college and living there in the meantime, and she babysat us a lot>
We went over there a LOT; they had a piano, and played it a lot, and I loved just lying underneath it while they cranked out tunes. They had a basketball net, and even though I sucked, I loved playing. They put up with a lot from us, I now realize, especially as they had beautiful weeping willows and a full hedge. Between the tree and the hedge, there was lots of leftover branches around at all times, and we would do everything from make bows and arrows out of the willow bits, to hiding in the big piles of brush for hours, making forts.
I suspect that little girl might remember you as fondly when she grows up, Chefguy.
Or, if it makes you feel a little better, she might not remember crap-all about what you do, so it’s not like you can really screw her up. Teach her the geek alphabet!
A is for Away Team, B is for Binary…Z is for Zork…you could have a lot of fun
Yeah, I’m not completely hopeless. As we were coloring and painting, she would ask things like “is this right?” or “is this a good color?”, to which I unfailingly answered along the lines of: “of course it is; it came from inside your head, so it must be right.”
