The joys of having a grandchild, translated…
Grandpa is a name called by the grandchild, but I can only call myself grandpa right now, as my granddaughter is only six-months and twenty days old, still very far, from learning to call me “grandpa”.
not my card…
As my granddaughter was still in the recovery center with my daughter-in-law, because I’d had to work, I can only visit them on the weekends; through the glass panes, I’d watched my granddaughter sleep, seeing how she’d moved a bit, open up her eyes, I’d become, more than satisfied. Even if the trips took two hours both ways.
It’s the trend now, to raise the young by the web, you can look things up online. From when she was born, weighing in at 2,800 grams, to 7.5 kilograms, other than sleeping, when she wakes, she’s fed, after she was fed, she’s burped, and, needed to be rocked by the adults in their arms for over fifteen minutes before she finally falls asleep again. The first four months, as she’d become sleepy, she’d started crying, and, grandma placed her horizontally between the waist, rocked her and called out to her, until she’s finally asleep, then, she is, placed back into the crib. After four months, she’d become like an inchworm, squiggled a lot, would look around, curious about every thing, wanted to touch everything, and when she couldn’t, she’d cried, placed everything she encountered into her mouth; the hard things, the softer materials, she’d wanted to, try them all, biting down, looked like she’s wondering to herself, “What, is this?”, and would start to foam at the mouth, like a crab would, and she’d made sound the sound, “Boo”, like she was bored or something, or, she’d stuck her hand into her mouth and sucked on it, and, if she’d sucked too hard, she’d let out a sound, then, stopped for a bit, then, started sucking again.
She’d hated being burped, and, as she was about to burp, she’d stopped herself, for instance, by crying out loud; when she was held, she’d straighten up her body, and seemed like she’s holding her breath from time to time, proclaiming how she’d not liked it at all.
She’d loved doing opposite of what the adults wanted too, she’d wanted to get down from being held too long, when we’d wanted her to lie down, she’d wanted to sit up, but couldn’t hold her body straight, very difficult to care. Grandma was out of power, having to take care of her for a long period of time, then, grandpa’s turn, her parents, as well as her auntie too, we’d all, raised up our white flag to surrender, she’s just, too energetic. she’d laughed, and we’d laughed with her, she’d cried, we flew into a panic, trying, to figure out why, hungry? Wet? Sleepy? We’d had to, go through the calculations of time, to get the most possible conditions, the house is under her rule completely, we’re all having it hard, but we’re all, enjoying it.
As I came home from work, I’d called out to her, smile at her, said, “Long time no see”. She’d smiled that light smile as a reply, then, started moving all around, to welcome you back into the house, and that cute look, had grandpa, head over heels over her now.
So, this, is the ups and the downs, of having a newborn child in your house, there are the moments that you’d felt awful, but, there are also, the moments of surprise, of happiness, of expectations, and the good always beats out the bad.