It seems like it’s all of a sudden that at eighteen months my granddaughter has radically increased her vocabulary. She calls a horse a ‘neigh-neigh’, a pig an ‘iggy’, and a turtle is a turtle. She asks for ‘more’ and clearly says when she’s ‘all done’. She has a new found passion for ‘oh-nits’ which, …
Author Archives: davidstong
perspective
My granddaughter lets me play with her giant legos. I have fun playing with her, though I hesitate to say ‘we’ have fun since she usually takes apart the stuff I build. Except for, oddly, a house for the dogs in her dog collection to live in. And I think that over this holiday with …
three years and counting
Facebook just showed me this image otherwise I probably wouldn’t have noticed the anniversary. Three years in the new position and I’ve settled in nicely to the changes. I think this job is a keeper. I’d written several paragraphs in celebration, then again in explanation, but really, a photo says it all. So on the …
monkeyLove
I’ve written about my sock monkey and his offspring before. When my granddaughter started trying to sneak into my room just to see him, I thought it would make another cute post. On the way to wordpress, though, memories washed over me and the nature of this post changed. Maybe the nature of today’s holiday? …
snapshots
loss
This past week my family lost its patriarch. He was a figure known, admired, and loved throughout the community. My daughter loved him. My granddaughter played on his lap. Though we’d been introduced and mumbled friendly greetings twice, I didn’t know the man. Regardless of differences, we managed to raise children that fell in love. …
Communication
My granddaughter is just about 15 months old and, although she isn’t talking, she’s finding pretty effective ways to communicate. Her mother and I just need to learn her language. Several days ago she surprised us by shaking her head “no” when we asked if she wanted a drink. She hung her head slightly and …
How it’s going
In another few weeks, my grand daughter will be a year old. A few weeks after that I’ll have been her caregiver for a year. It’s been and continues to be great. As an update to anyone curious about how I spend my time, I’ll say that I’ve stopped any pretense of free-lance. I also …
Earth Day
A student committee asked if I’d host discussions in the art room. I was in the room practically all day anyway; it was my senior year and I spent all of my free periods working on art projects. I could wing any discussion, I figured, since discussion was easy. Trash, air pollution, industrial run-off, Pottstown …
monkey care
Each time I’ve looked at my old sock monkey I’ve thought it fitting that he has apparently aged right along with me. Now discolored and full of sags, bulges, and wrinkles, my quaintly misshapen friend was once firm, smooth, and bright. As I age, so does he. On one of my last visits after my …