by Trent Rosser
Recently, our 2 year old grandson came to stay with us for a while. My son was stillborn and I really never had children after that, but I dated some women who had children and they called me “Dad”. It is one of the best feelings in the world. In reality, I have 2 daughters and 2 sons. No, I am not the biological father, but that does not matter. I treat them all like my own. One daughter, I do not see as much. Stormy has a child named Trevor. I do not see them very often but I do keep up with them, thanks to Facebook. I have another daughter “Lindsey” who came to stay with us and she brought Levi with her. Levi is the grandson I have wrote about before. You remember the flying mashed potatoes? Yep, that was him. He was born 2 weeks past his due date, so Turtle became his nickname. Now he is staying with us, along with his mother, one of his uncles, our 2 dogs, my wife and me. Yes, we have a full house and I have not seen the bathroom since last Tuesday!
The good thing about them being here is that Hunter the dog has someone to play with. Levi and Hunter are best friends. I think that they actually talk with each other to torture Rascal the cat! Rascal used to meow at the door and when we opened the door, he would bolt in like lightning right to his food bowl. Not now. Rascal now looks in the door and checks to see if Hunter or Turtle are in sight, before he comes in the house. If he does see either one of them, he is gone for another day before he comes home. Hunter protects Turtle like his own pup. When we pick up Turtle and act like we drop him and then catch him at the last moment, Hunter gets on the ground underneath him so turtle will not actually hit the ground if we do not catch him. Hunter really doesn’t like that game. He barks at us when we play with Turtle like that.
It’s not all fun and games! You see, he is in the process of being potty trained, and that in itself can ruin many good moments. Trust me, when your wife puts down a great looking supper at the table and when you come in there is a horrible smell…. It’s not the spaghetti! Or when he is riding on your back like a horse and you feel something wet rolling down your back, it is a quick mood killer! Oh and let the screaming begin when it’s his bedtime. I am surprised the neighbors have not called the law to report us for beating or killing him. At least that's what it sounds like we are doing. When we say “Bedtime!” he screams “NOOO!!” He kicks and he does everything he can to get out of going to bed.
I will tell ya this also. He is tough! He was running and did what all kids do and fell. He hit his head on the concrete walkway. He hit hard. At least it looked like he hit hard. He of course cried a little bit and then he was done and back to playing. If it were me, I would have been knocked unconscious and a huge knot on my head. Not him, he was just fine after about a minute of crying and he found something new he wanted to play with.
He is also learning to speak. Which is usually a good thing, but he loves to hang around his Papa, that is me! That is also a bad thing. I know I shouldn’t, but I still say quite a few words that I should not say. I try to not say anything bad and watch my language, but sometimes things happen. So he is learning to repeat things. Of course, when he does repeat a few things he gets into trouble. They then try to figure out where he learned that kind of language. “Honestly, honey, I have no idea where he learned that.” Truthfully, I am sure he has heard me cuss quite a bit while I am driving somewhere. The kid will have road rage when he is on his tricycle! He is still learning to put sentences together and so when he starts talking to you, he does not stop. And you better listen to what he is saying or he gets all kinds of upset. When he wants you to pay attention to him, you better do it! He repeats a lot of things that I do. I had an empty plastic bottle and was hitting it against my head and yelping every time I did. He laughed of course and then he grabbed the bottle and tried it. Only he grabbed the bottom of the bottle and hit his head with the top and hard plastic cap. “Owwwie”
Levi and I have a lot of fun together. We play together and we watch TV together. We even do yard work together. He grabbed the water hose from me when I was watering the lawn, I had the sprayer on jet and he took it to help. Only instead of watering the lawn, he chased the cat, and his mother with the water hose. I was smart, I stood behind him and I let him go at it. It was all fun until he started to spray inside the house! Yes, it’s not always fun times, when he is crying or when he is hurt, but that is ok. The fun times do make up for it. These are the moments that you should cherish each and every day. As I get older I remember my grandparents and the relationship that we had. I would like to have that with all my grandchildren and like I said before, biological doesn’t matter. As long as they call me Papa, they will have me wrapped around their fingers.
