Grandboy (sad): Why you no play game with me?

Me: Sorry, i don’t want to play a game today.

Grandboy: Why?

Me: I’m in a bad mood. I’ll play a little later.

Grandboy (crosses arms, frowns): Hmph. I in a bad mood, too.

Me: Why are you in a bad mood?

Grandboy: I don’t know. Why YOU in a bad mood, gwumpa?

Me: Haha let’s go play a game

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by Swamibu

Today’s a good day to stretch the project management and set theory muscles.

Grandboy was feeling overwhelmed by the massive cleaning effort he was to do, so he did nothing. Actually he started making more mess.

So I asked him to choose one set of things to pick up and put away.

That’s all.

Just one set. We started with pencils.

Then I advised that I’d leave him to it and not watch. When he finished that set he could come out and show me his work.

We’re on set #8 now, the biggest one. Legos. But still going strong!

Photo credit: All rights reserved by peakingatnormal

When an unstoppable force comes across an immovable object, an infinite amount of energy and noise is produced.

A real-world observation of this is when a littleun refuses to clean the bedroom and mamasan has taken notice of the situation.

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by markchadwickart

Me: Your room is a mess.

Grandboy: I know, gwumpa. I clean it someday.

Me: Today is a good day. You should clean your room today.

Grandboy: Wellllll,… (excitedly) how ’bout Tuesday? Yes I clean it on Tuesday!

Me: …

Grandboy: What today is?

Me: If you’re cleaning your room on Tuesday then today is Tuesday . Let’s clean your room.

Grandboy: (thinks) But.. Um. Today’s a SPECIAL Tuesday. I don’t have to clean on special Tuesdays.

Momma: You’ve got ten minutes.

Photo credit: All rights reserved by Bookriver..a little busy.

Me, to the grandboy: “Ok, let’s leave the pup out of your room tonight. He needs to guard the rest of the house.”

Grandboy: “Awwwwee gwumpa he needs to sleep in here with me.”

Me: “No, you’ll be fine. He’ll keep bad guys from coming through the front or back doors.”

Grandboy, catching on: “YAH! Stop them from coming in. He eat dem.”

Me: “Well…”

Grandboy, on a roll: “Or ZOMBEES. He eat the ZOMBEES gwumpa.”

Me: …

Grandboy (no stopping him now): “Or, or. or GOLDILOCKS gwumpa. She break chairs and doors and EAT all our FOOD.”

Me: …

Grandboy (to the dog): “Go get them. Get Goldilocks too no let her eat my bweakfast.”

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by CircaSassy

I was walking down the hallway, off to bed and notice the grandboy’s door handle sloooooowly turning.

So I stand at the door. And wait.

The door silently opens a tiny bit and I see a lone eyeball peeking out.

I wait.

Then comes the little voice: “Gwumpa what you doin’?”

Me (trying to look and sound stern): “What are YOU doin’?”

“Nothin’ gwumpa” (door is still only cracked open and the eye unblinking)

“Then go do nothin’ in your room.”

“Okay gwumpa” The door silently closes, eye still staring me down, then I hear the click of the latch. And then a giggle.

Some movie moments can’t be caught on film 🙂

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by fazen

Grandboy: Awwww gwumpa i dropped my bowl of cereal on accident. [blink blink smile blink]

Me: Hm. Ok. Now you can start picking it up on purpose. You dropped it, now you pick it up.

Grandboy: But gwuummmmpa it my hands they can’t behave and they dropped it [blink blink]

Me: Well you’re responsible for your hands. If they can’t behave then you’d better let them know you aren’t happy about making them clean up after themselves.

Grandboy [grumbling, picking up the dry cereal (no milk in the bowl)] Hands get me in trouble.

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by sama093

Grandboy: I have a, have a, I have a special laser gun, see? It shoots fire AND ice mixed together. See [zoop]

Me: Fire AND water? Together? You mean you have a water gun. Fire and ice mixed together is water.

Momma: Awwe let him be, he’s just a child, mean grampa

Grandboy: Yah! Gwumpa.

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by freestock.ca ♡ dare to share beauty

Grandboy, singing while drawing pictures of fireworks: “Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, cross the light, the street…”

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by joinash

Here’s something to try.

Leave the tv and radio and internet music background noise off when the littleuns are playing in the house.

Yes, it’s scary. It leaves a gaping hole in the environment and we’re left with our own thoughts.

The littleuns may react oddly at first (but being adaptive as they are, they’ll adjust quickly).

Why do this? Saves on electricity bill, for one.

But more importantly it helps the littleuns’ brain development. They can focus on their thoughts as they play. They’ll be less likely to blindly follow others since they aren’t trained to tune out their thoughts to follow the background noise.

They will also learn how to speak more quietly and with a greater vocal range when they don’t have to shout all the time to hear themselves speak. That’s more powerful than you’d think it is… listen to great public speakers and you’ll note that the better ones aren’t monotone when they speak.

Also, this will help you hear the wonderful sound of them playing, singing, and dancing.

That’s golden.

Grandboy is running around the house, running and diving behind furniture, then coming out saying, “ah man…”

When asked what he’s doing, the response is, “I playing Hide and Zeke”.

He doesn’t know who Zeke is, either. Although, living in Texas, he’s bound to run into one eventually

The grandboy is upset because he lost an argument with his imaginary little brother.

I told him it’s ok, we can’t win them all.

Photo credit:  Some rights reserved by pasukaru76

Grandboy (holding up some legos pressed together): What is this?

Me: Ummm, ah. It’s a magical dolphin.

Grandboy: NO gwumpa it’s a piece. For a CAR.