Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Y'all Are Young. I Am Old






This is how I take care of Owen and Gibson:
I hold Gibson and I follow Owen around.
That's it.
Occasionally I put Gibson down on a blanket or a bed



 or in his walker to help Owen do a puzzle


 or fix him a snack or in some other way do his bidding but basically, that is it. Hold Gibson, follow Owen.

We did get some time in his cardboard box house while Gibson was sleeping. He wanted me to draw some pictures inside of it with crayons and I drew a flower and a butterfly. He liked them okay. He always wants Dolly The Dog to come into the house with him and she'll tolerate it for a few moments but not for long. Perhaps she has claustrophobia which would also explain why she wails all night long in her kennel.
Sigh.
Buster The Dog came in to the cardboard house today but that was because he wanted some of Owen's sliced apples. Buster is a fruit-eating dog. We let him have some. Why not? There were plenty.

The three of us did brave the mosquitoes and sit on the porch swing on my side porch for awhile and as long as I kept the swing going briskly, we were fine. I used to swing Owen out there. When nothing else would calm him as a baby, that swing would. One of the biggest oak trees in Lloyd is right in front of that porch and I think it has magical powers on all of us. I held Gibson and we went back and forth and back and forth and Owen climbed up on the arm of it and held on to the chain because sitting and swinging is too tame for such a boy as he is. He is lion these days, he is tiger, he removes my face with his fierce claws and then sweetly offers it back to me the way a witty uncle pretends to remove the nose of a child and then put it back.
"Here your face," he says, holding out his hand, palm cupped up.
"Thank-you," I say. "Next time, give me back a newer one."


7 comments:

  1. Precious times, for you and for them. The photos are priceless! And so is Mer-Mer.

    I am so happy to be back reading your beautiful words and stories...you make my life happier and calmer.

    And now I'm going to see if Bill Clinton is speaking yet!

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  2. I had to smile at the comment about Buster. I too have a fruit-eating dog...she begs for apples and pears and bananas and even does tricks to earn cherry tomatoes fresh off the bushes in the garden!

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  3. Mosquitoes are fierce tonight here!

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  4. Your method of parenting and babysitting produces superb results -- those boys are outrageously cute!

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  5. Lulumarie- I bet you loved Bill's speech as much as I did.

    Mama D- When Buster could still hear, he'd come in the kitchen if you peeled a banana.

    Syd- They just keep getting worse here which I keep thinking isn't possible.

    Elizabeth- That's genes. They are blessed with some fine ones. Okay, a quarter of them are mine. But I sure don't see me in them.

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  6. Those photos are going to be the classics your grandsons come back to again and again. What a wonderful series, how full of life your two boys are. I'm enchanted.

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  7. Too much cuteness in one post! I may explode.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.