The Grandparent Thread

Parent Cafe
2261

Twins will be 18 months next week.

Twin B talks up a storm. New word or two every day. Has close to 100 words she uses confidently and correctly. Maybe more. (We stopped counting at 50–which was weeks ago.) She been trying to say picture this week because she want to watch videos of herself on my phone or iPad, but it come out as “b*tch”. We laugh about that all the time.

Twin A talks too, but she has fewer words than her sister. Maybe half as many.

Although it’s early, it may be time to start thinking about potty training with B. Both twins can take off their own pants. And B thinks it’s hysterically funny to take off her diaper. Changing her or dressing her is challenge because she undoes her diaper as fast you can fasten it. Monday she pooped, then immediately pulled off her pants and stripped off her diaper, flinging the contents all over the family room floor, then giggling delightedly, she ran outside to the back yard with her poopy little butt cheeks flashing.

Twins are fast becoming toddlers. When we don’t understand what she wants, Twin B will stomp her feet and yell No! No! No! But her sister, Twin A has turned out to be a drama queen. When she doesn’t get what she wants, she throws her self dramatically face down on the floor and lies limp like 1960s protestor. And if you don’t pay attention to her, she gets up, walks over until she’s right in front of you and does it all over again. Sometimes as many as 4 or 5 times in a row. It’s pretty funny.

Twins are bilingual because their nanny used to talk to them mostly in Spanish. They understand who are English speakers and who are Spanish speakers. If Dad asks them a question in Spanish, they look at him funny and and answer in English. If the nanny reads a book to them in English that she usually reads to them in Spanish, they get upset and insist she starts the book over in Spanish.

Now that their nanny has left, Dad is still speaking in Spanish to them to keep up their skills. D and SIL are hoping to hire another nanny, but she doesn’t speaks Spanish. She speaks Korean. Maybe the twins will be trilingual if she accepts the job! (Dad is fluent in English, Italian and German, has “pretty good” Spanish, and knows enough Mandarin to get around when he travels to China.)

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2262

I have a brand new granddaughter. I wanted a “grandma” name instead of grandma deb which is what my mom and mil are. Grandma first name. So I thought Mimi would be nice.

My daughter, my granddaughter’s aunt thinks it’s funny and calls me meemaw and my husband pop pop. I’m afraid it’s going to stick! :joy:

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2263

GD, 3, has been a practitioner of the long, slow drop to the floor when she has “big feelings.” Not so much in the past year, but it has reappeared, along with a frequent moodiness at odds with her usually sunny nature. Apparently the concept of “threenager” is a thing.

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2264

When my granddaughter was about 4 she was trying to tell me a story about something that happened the previous year in pre-school. She began “In olden times…” It was so hard not to laugh!

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2265

Languages learned before a certain age is stored in the brain differently - or something else special – so it is more ‘deep’ learning. I don’t remember the details, but had I known that, I would have used the German tapes with the books from the library, and spoken more Schweitzer-Deutsch with mom and my DDs - and encouraged mom to speak it exclusively with DDs. My first language was Schweitzer-Deutsch and it was used extensively on my first trip to Switzerland when I was 12. After an overnight in Switzerland, I could think and speak in S-D.

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2266

Spending the next 10 days babysitting my 16-month old granddaughter! She and her parents live 800 miles from us and we hadn’t seen Baby N since Christmas. She has lots of words and it’s very clear what she wants! My son-in-law is Russian and speaks Russian to her as do her other grandparents. Son-in-law had surgery for a torn tendon and D is going back to work. I have Baby N all to myself. It’s exhausting and fun at the same time.

My folks were immigrants from Croatia—we spoke the language at home all the time. Once I left for college, I didn’t have a chance to use the language. Visiting my cousins in Croatia (2019) I found it fairly easy to understand what folks were saying, but my vocabulary was really limited! Use it or lose really applies IMO to second languages.

My granddaughter calls me JJ—which is what my stepdaughter’s kids called me. The Croatian word for grandmother means old lady—not for me.

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2267

As someone who has worked in the health care/early childhood/literacy field for decades…

80% of brain development happens by age 3. Talking/reading/singing/playing in ANY language - dual included - stimulates optimal patterns of brain development, which helps build strong pathways in the brain and in turn builds language, literacy, and social-emotional skills. Picture what happens when you push a plug into an electrical outlet. The connections, get stronger with repetition - so the more they hear the language (any language) the faster and stronger the brain connections get and stay. That’s why kids ask for repetition - the same song, the same book - over and over again - their brain craves these repeated connections to grow and develop!

Young brains don’t care that the input comes in more than one language!

We always recommend that dual language homes also read books in both languages - just like we’d recommend continuing to sing songs in dual languages.

So all these grandchildren who are being exposed to more than one language - you are making those brain neurons grow and increasing the brain synapses! (the stimulus/plug to go in the outlet!)

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2268

My GD is 16 months today … and she has suddenly decided that she needs to push boundaries. She was taught to be very gentle with her dog, but today she looked right at me & pinched the dog. I told her that we don’t hurt the dog and redirected her to another activity. She did a couple other things that she absolutely knew weren’t okay, looking right into my soul while she did them. Fortunately, it’s easy to redirect her at this point, but I had forgotten how hard some kids will push their limits. My S was like that. I see a period of exhaustion ahead for Grandma!

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2269

S3 and fiancé had a baby girl Sunday. Our first granddaughter, 3rd grandchild. We’re over the moon. She’s beautiful and already has S around her little finger :joy:. We’re ready to babysit and spoil her!

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2270

There was an online article about grandparent names recently and it was cute how some of the names were picked. Most didn’t want Grandma Pat or Grandpa John, and have gone to CC, Mimi, etc. One grandfather was called something like Bang or Bop from that sound in a book he read to the grandchild over and over.

My mother is Nana to EVERYONE, even her kids (me) now. My brother has about 1000 kids a year in a youth sports program and all the kids, coaches, friends of grandchildren, significant others of grandchildren…

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2271

Fun grandparent experience- DH (“papa”) and I were doing a facetime type app (called Caribu) with 4 yo granddaughter. We were reading a book or coloring or playing a game or something (I forget) when DS walked by in the background with our 14 mo old grandson . GS saw the screen and yelled “NANA!” and DH brought him up to the screen, wher I sang some songs with him and he clapped!! Makes your heart melt, especially since (1) his vocabulary is still pretty limited so I was honored that nana is one of his words) and (2) we don’t get to see them that often since we live across the country, so his recognizing me in a small picture on the screen was so endearing.

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2272

I find that these kids, especially the once born in the last two years, are use to seeing their grandparents and others on a screen. My youngest GD will FT with both sets of grandparents almost daily; my D and SIL are so good about this, S and DIL, not so much! They have had cameras/phones in their faces all the times. Recently, once the call connected, GD yelled, “Mama, turn the phone off, I don’t want to talk!”

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2273

Congratulations, @Singersmom07! A baby girl! Fabulous!

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2274

My DS#1 and his wife don’t let 4 yo GD have much screen time, especially unsupervised. So she can’t just facetime us at her will :frowning: They aren’t so great about calling. We have to ask. With the time difference it’s hard. For a while GD would be on with us for a bit and then say “hang up on nana/papa” and…. blip. Gone.

2275

DIL got us a Portal. It’s great! We have been able to engage grandson with the stories, games and special effects it has loaded on it. It made it more interesting for him than just talking. Then we also played dinosaurs with him. We have some here and he directs the stories there. It’s a Sunday morning routine now. 2 hr time difference means we’re up and about and he is distracted while Mom and Dad get their coffee and wake up😂

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2276

GD (age 2) is running in the Healthy Kids running series. It is a series of 5 races for kids. The youngest group is age 2/3 and the distance is 50 yards. This was Week #4 and H and I went to watch. It was the funniest and cutest thing I’ve seen in awhile. GD false-started and then plopped herself down on the course. Mom had to pick her up and bring her back to the start. She finished with a huge grin on her face. Then we hit up the playground at this park for a few hours. It was an awesome morning!

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2277

My Grandson just turned 4 months. He is vey small, at the 2% for weight. However, his pediatrician signed off on starting sleep training now, with a feeding in the night. Well it took 2 nights and he is completely sleep trained. D and SIL used the Ferber method. As I am his primary caregiver, this is a game changer!

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2278

I know some families are struggling to find formula on the shelf for their babies. Driving distances like 2 hours only to find no formula. Obviously the special formulas needed are the ones most critical in the shortage situation.

My DD breast fed, but with FT work (and multiple small children) she didn’t breast feed as long as baby still needed a bottle. Her youngest is 8 months old now, and she has not mentioned having trouble getting formula in her area. GS is eating some cereal and soft foods with small spoon too.

I heard a pediatrician on NPR say that in some areas some moms were trying to make formula from a recipe that is circulating, but cautioned about the difficulty of making something that may not have good results and to not do this.

When scrimping on formula, in addition to not getting the calories recommended, if mixing with too much water, can over stress the developing kidneys and send a baby to the hospital. That is something one doesn’t think of.

So I just thought I would share with this group of grandparents.

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2279

D1 is doing self feeding with GD. She started it when GD was 6 months old. They put regular food (size that are easy for GD to pick up) on a tray in front of GD and she just uses her hands to pick up food she wants to eat. She will generally eat a fairly meal even though she is self feeding. She will eat protein, veggie and starch. The only time it gets messy is rice. GD used to throw food on the floor whenever she was done, but now she’ll make a sign language to show she is done and we quickly remove her plate. She also loves her food, so she doesn’t leave much behind.
She is 15 months now, I will give her a fork so she could practice using it to pick up food.

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2280

My D has done this with both kids. Does go well, though the three year old does tend to eat things with her hand that I would expect warrant a utensil. She CAN use fork/spoon, but not a fan unless needed (cereal, yogurt, etc). Recent 1yr old tends to rake up a handful and basically jab it in. Entertaining to watch. Also sometimes eats “bear style” – no hands. I expect they’ll be fine by adulthood :slight_smile:

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