Grandma talks ALL the time. Sometimes it seems that she never stops talking. I know this is not true and she does actually take breaks from her talking and, oh, the mumbling. But when I am in the moment, it seems like she can't stop. Today, the boys were down for a nap and the younger one wakes up first. He immediately gets up and goes to his older brother who is sleeping in the chair and starts poking him in the face to try to wake him. Grandma got such a kick out of this, it was really cute. But then she started with the talking..laughing and telling the one year old how he should just hit that brother on his head and wake him up, he'd been sleeping long enough. Apparently the universal rule of never wake a sleeping child has also escaped her mind. But seriously, this is not a big deal, just a little annoying. The laughing and carrying on while I am trying my best to keep little brother from waking up big brother. Then I started listening to her and at one point she starts counting, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, etc. It was almost like she wanted to be the one talking and to keep the conversation going she resorted to counting. It was beyond strange, but I didn't say anything.
Also, she likes to talk for the little kids. I sometimes babysit the kid of a friend of mine and she can't talk very well yet. So grandma talks for her, and my one year old, and for my three year old but he just corrects her saying, "no grandma, I didn't say that" and she stops. If a baby cries she begins with, "oh mommy I need to be picked up" or "oh mommy, pay attention to me and not big brother," etc. These things may not seem like a big deal but imagine if you heard them all day every day. And imagine that you have three or four people depending solely on you to feed and take care of them. You have a plan of action for meal-time or whatever you are doing. But, you are constantly interrupted with these little one-liners grandma MUST add. Say you are draining the boiling pasta for the mac and cheese and you really can't do that with a baby on your hip. So the baby is crying because it's hungry and you are rushing to get lunch ready and all you can hear is, "pick me up mommy, pick me up. Don't neglecgt me mommy, please pick me up." Then she adds, "why don't you let me do that so you can hold the baby." Yes, that is what I need...help. Unfortunately grandma can't cook because she loses her train of thought. So, the only solution I have come up with is to ignore her or throw at her the old, "he's fine, I'll get him in just a second."
The mumbling is equally frusterating because this is done when she does not approve of something I am doing. Not only does she like to monitor the way the kids play, she also likes to monitor the way I do laundry, dishes, driving, what I eat and how much, what I drink...you name it, she has an opinion about it and she insists on sharing it. Often under her breath..."going back for seconds? Hmmph." And I can't go without mentioning the "kids didn't act like that in my day." And all these things are mentioned under her breath. The best part is, my three year old doesn't miss a beat and he often comes in and tells all the things grandma is saying. She gets flustered that he is tatteling on her and we do end up having a laugh over that. There is definitely humor here and I am glad that we can find it.
Sometimes I miss my grandma. We used to banter back and forth and give each other a hard time, but no longer. She mumbles and grumbles and I agree with everything she says as not to set her off. Yep, I really miss my grandma and all the laughs and good times we had.
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