My father says he feels as old as Methuselah. He is now a great-grandfather. His first great-grandchild made a grand entrance at 9:40 yesterday morning. Without even having seen her he is, of course, convinced that she is the most beautiful baby in the universe. We all breathed a sigh of relief at her safe arrival. I am delighted for my nephew and his wife. I think they will make very good parents, probably rather traditional parents.
I am, if anything, even more delighted for my father. He was feeling anxious. He was also impatient to become a "great-grand". We are all aware that he has become much closer to his grandchildren since the death of my mother. A little strangely she never took any great interest in them, not even bothering to acknowledge their birthdays. "Grandpa" on the other hand loves to make things for them and this one will be given building blocks and a doll's cradle and other items if he is still up to making them. There will be no shop bought plastic for this little one and that is as it should be.
If this little one lives to the age my father is now she will be looking towards a new century. I have no doubt that the world will be a very different place. It was a very different place when my father was born. It was a very different place when I was born and when my brother, her grandfather, was born. I am not sure whether it is worse or better. I think I would have to say both better and worse.
What I cannot help wondering is whether she will still have the building blocks so that her great-grandchildren can play with them and what they will think they are if they do.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
5 comments:
Congratulations on your new family member! So lovely that your dad is making wooden toys. Heidi springs to mind! My granddad made me toys, too - I remember an ironing board! Obviously he didn't think I'd turn out to be such an anti-housework feminist! Things will hold the memory of us though, so it is nice and right that he should invest into the thing which will be the currency of the new baby's childhood.
I have never quite forgiven my mother for giving away the doll house my father made me. It was pretty basic but the same layout as our house at the time and I loved it madly because he made it for me. I never played with it as such - just made up stories about what happened in it!
Mothers can be quite the most insensitive creatures at times. As I am discovering to my discredit!
I miss my doll house, too, and I was more than a little surprised when my daughter declared she no longer wants hers. I'm keeping it anyway - just in case.
Also - making up stories is much the best way to play with a doll house!
How true!
Post a Comment