BBs Blog

Happy New Year everyone. I hope everyone reading this had as wonderful a Yuletide holiday season as I did. Despite the fact they spent the whole Yuletide singing themselves hoarse, the batteries stayed up in all three of the caroling critters, so I really did have a Holly Jolly, Make You Want To Shout, Living La Vida Loca holiday season. Though I wouldn’t trade one noisy moment of this holiday season, I think I did hear the caroling critters sigh with relief as I carefully bagged them and put them in Storage Sunday morning. The fact he shamelessly enjoyed my caroling critters right up until they left didn’t stop him from giving me dirty looks at times as I enforced some of the rules concerning what he could and couldn’t touch. My son watched him giving me one of those dirty looks, and with a grin of delight dubbed me “The Evil Granny.” By the time he finished add libbing as he read my grandson the story of how the Grinch stole Christmas, the Grinch was in drag and now referred to as The Evil Granny.

As we were taking the tree down I offered my grandson a candy cane, with the stipulation he say, “Please.” He remained mute, and began to rub his chest and belly with one hand. I wondered why he was rubbing his chest and belly, held the candy cane up and said, “Say please.” My grandson looked at me with frustration and began to rub his chest and harder. Meanwhile, my son was watching, and doubled over his a fit of hysteria. I glared at my son, then still holding the candy cane up, looked at my grandson and repeated, “Yes the candy cane is yummy for your tummy. Now say, please, and I’ll give it to you.” My grandson glared at his father, then looked back at me like he wanted to slap me in frustration, and began to frantically rub his chest and belly with both hands as fast as he could. Finally Christopher managed to gasp out, “He’s not telling you it’s yummy for his tummy. He is saying please, in baby sign language.”

That’s when I remembered Muffy mentioning something about the day care center he had attended in California teaching him baby sign language. I gave my grandson the candy cane, while apologizing to him for not realizing he was saying please, in his own baby sign language way. My grandson promptly said, “Thank you” to me, then turned to his father and said, “Thank you.” Chris looked at his son and said, “What are you thanking me for?” His son gave him a look that clearly said, “Are you nuts?”, then slid a sideways glance at me. I mumbled, “He’s thanking you for telling me he was saying please.” Chris once more doubled over in laughter and gasped out, “Yeah son, your evil granny is terrible at second languages.”