Taylor & Baba

Ali asked Grandpa Mike to write about our two weeks visiting AT&T in Seattle, particiularly my experiences with Miss T as I call her.

First, she seemed to have a problem or just didn't want to call me grandpa. So I told her to call me "Bubba". Well, she translated that as "Baba" so now I'm Baba. Actually she yells "Baba" like some kind of protest word so I'm still not sure she calls me anything specific.

We took lots of walks while I was here. We looked for golf balls and found plenty. We looked for animals and found birds, dogs, kitties, chipmunks, turtles, and, her favorite, slugs!! No snakes or gators. She loved for me to take her to the local playground where she loved for me to swing her (the higher the better) and felt such accomplishment when she climbed the 12 or so steps to the top of the slide apparatus.

While she likes her stroller, she likes more to walk. I'll always remember her ginger steps wondering if the next step was going to cause her to fall, but she never did. Her left arm swung as fast as her steps while her right arm didn't move much at all.

It's fascinating for a grandparent to relive infant/toddler stages through grandchildren, realizing that this is perhaps the last experience you'll have with these stages. You try to capture the precious moments, even as you tried with your own children. Some stick in your memory bank, most don't. I'll try to remember her hand motions that described when she wanted more, when she wanted to say please and thank you, when she didn't know how to answer you. I'll try to remember how she loved to eat while watching Elmo and other muppets. I'll try to remember how Ali fixed her hair with the "pony tail" on top of her head. I'll try to remember playing with her in her toy and book room and how she took care of all her "babies", covering them with washcloths.

It's time for Baba to go home and I won't see her again for a couple of months, but my mind will be filled with many precious moments I had with Miss T and her family.