Grandparenthood for Dummies

Climbing and Jumping! This is Ripley considering jumping off the edge of the Garden Chair. He climbed up on his hands and knees and then stood up and turned around and considered jumping. But I can report that in fact he did not jump but sat down and slid off the side of the chair. A wise decision.

Here he is! Sitting in the swing not quite sure what to do. Its an old swing that I renovated. I took it apart and oiled the wood with linseed oil - and let it dry. Then I replaced all the ropes with a new soft cord. Putting together was tricky - but I made a sketch of the way it went together before takng it apart.

Sometime when I push him he seems to move naturally to increase the amplitude of the swing. But he has not yet worked it out. What he does like is when I make a face and stand just near the end of the movement of the swing.

I told him all about Simple Harmonic Motion - but not sure he absorbed it all.

Words are coming out now! Ripley calls this a "barra" and I say wheelbarrow - but he must hear Barrow. He likes to be pushed around the garden. He collects the various footballs and tennis balls and puts them in the barrow and then throws them out at places on the journey.

The blog has been having problems for the last few weeks. But now we are back in stride.

This is Ripley learning about tape players. He just loves to open the door for the tape - take it out - close the door - open the door - put it back in and then play it.

We had Ripley to Grandparent sit most of today. He looks after us very well - keeping us busy. This is a picture of him helping out doing the washing up. We started off with the plastic thermos cups but that was a watery mess - he very vigorously pulls them from the bowl part full and puts them on the draining board - the water flicks everywhere; sink, window and floor. So instead of plastic cups he washed the spoons - these held less water and made a fabulous crashing sound as they went in and out of the bowl and back to the draining board. What a busy lad he is!

This little lad is always looking into things - finding out what's inside. And once he's established that there is a place he is allowed to look in he keeps coming back and going through the process again and again. This is a picture of Ripley looking through the contents of one of the desk draws. It is one of the the desk drawer columns that is all that remains of the roll-top desk that belong to my grandfather. The draws are very long and made of wood. Ripley grabs the drawer handle but cannot pull it out. I open the draw and he looks through the contents - bit by bit. Here he is looking at an old calculator.

Could this be the beginning of counting? Ripley points at each thing and says "Daaaa". I get him to count my fingers and each one is "Daaa" even though I say one , two, three etc. There is so much to learn - integers, primes, fractions and then onto calculus and matrix manipulation.