One anchor of sanity I still have is that I have a FaceTime call with my wife every night. Or, rather, I call my wife’s phone, which my granddaughter Iliana monopolizes immediately.
Sometimes, she sees me and immediately yells “Momo!”, which is how she pronounces “Elmo”. I have an Elmo puppet and she likes to say hello.
Sometimes, she says “Ca’!”, which means I have to go hunt down the cat. Our cat never obligingly curls up in my lap, she’s always off somewhere else, so I have to wander around the house to find her, and then when she sees me coming with the phone, she runs off to hide. Iliana associates me with a cat, though, so I have to track her down.
And sometimes she just shouts “Bampa!” like she’s happy to see me. Then I’m expected to follow her around as she shows off her toys. Or rather, Mary has to follow her around keeping her in view. I might get one or two sentences with Mary on these calls. That’s OK, we grandparents have a moral duty, and I aim to fulfill it.
Bampa ,love it .My mates little boy used to call me dabe ,then it changed to dayf .
If we keep shouting “Ca’!” in the comments, will it circumvent the rational parts of your brain and catapult you straight into Grandpa mode, so we can see kitty pictures?
The cat is remarkably uncooperative, and really hates it when I put my phone in her face.
“The cat is remarkably uncooperative” well duh,how long have you been staff to a cat .
Sometimes i can’t get mine in at night ,they will sit about six ft away with the feline version of a smirk on their faces ,if i make a move towards them ,they run off, little bastards the whole three of them .
Hi Doc ,i think the” Well Duh ” shows a certain lack of respect on my part ,sorry .
You’re remotely co-grandparenting. So you’re not getting much facetime with your wife, but you are sharing the experience.
Language acquisition is fascinating: a few weeks ago, and between one FaceTime session and the next, my granddaughter suddenly switched on the English language (seemingly complete).
Now THAT’S something to look forward to PZ!
Cartomancer,
I wish we could upload pictures here. My phone is full of scads of pictures of my three feline fur-babies.
I have some especially sweet pics of them enjoying the warm hearth when we have the gas fireplace turned on.
Gigi, the three-legged rescue, seems to feel that warming her butt is extremely important, so she has it up against the door of the fireplace in nearly every picture.