Growing Young With Your Grandchild

I remember when June and I had our own children. We were very excited with all of them and watched them as they grew from new born to little person. We raised them with love and security. We watched in amazement as they progressed through the learning stages of life . Learning to recognize us, learning to eat solid food and chew, learning to talk, creep, crawl, and walk. we were truly amazed and yet we got so busy taking care of them that we took a lot if it granted. we became parents.

As parents, we watched our children and wondered how they would turn out. What would they be? Would they be good people? Would they be successful? Would they be healthy? And as we did all these things we began to get older.

Then we became grandparents. Since Owen was born , we have started the reverse aging process. We are becoming younger as we interact with him and again watch in amazement as he changes from newborn to little person.

As a newborn , he was a blank slate He was completely dependent on his parents for everything. About the only thing he knew was the sound of his mother's voice.

We have watched him as he has gone from this blank slate to the little guy he is today at 7 months . It is truly amazing how much children learn in their first year. They will learn more at this time than in any other time in their lives.

During the past week , June and I (mostly June), have had the privilege of babysitting Owen. During the week we have watched as he has played in his Muscle Builder(Jolly Jumper), started to crawl, Can sit up by himself He is learning to talk and blow. He laughs at things that amuse him and watches to see if he amuses you. He can be very stubborn and has a temper at times. He knows that if you do certain things to the computer, certain actions will happen. Erin bought him a movie and he watched as she put it in her laptop. He then watched the movie but his attention would go back to where she had put this disc. Where did it go?

If you make a sound with your mouth, he watches to see how you do it. He then tries to mimic the sound that you make.

His uncle Craig bought him a new toy where you pile one object on top of another. These objects are on 4 plates that rotate when you push a certain button on the toy. He has learned that he can knock down the objects , hit the button and have a nice noisy toy, He loves it. When he does this, he looks to see if you are laughing with him.

He also learned that big people food is much more tasty than baby food. He just has to chew a lot more. And a drink of water is very good to have with his meal. He has also learned that dessert usually tastes better than anything else.

he has not done anything that most babies don't do. The only exception is he has made me feel and think young again. I think , wouldn't it be wonderful if we could remember back to our first year and what we were thinking,. I watch Owen as he concentrates on certain things and think to myself, "What is he thinking?". I get a great deal of joy watching him as he just bounces around in his muscle builder just for the sheer joy of it. I am amazed when he demands to watch his videos on the computer. I go soft when he smiles at me.

Am I just a proud grandparent as a friend of mine just wrote me? Of course. I kow she is just yanking my chain when she says this. That's what friends are for and she is a good friend.But I am a young proud grandparent and getting younger.