Opa

My granddaughter Sydney is here for a few days with her dad who is working in the basement finishing it. She is such a delight. Now she discovered playacting. On the back patio she flattens small rocks with her hands and has me eat the “pancake”. I ask for syrup. “No”, she says,”I don’t have any but here is peanut butter and jelly.” She pretends to spread it on the “pancake”. I close my hands over the rock, pretending to eat it but slip it into the other hand. “See, I ate it”, showing her the empty hand. She gets me a new one.

After a while she starts licking the rocks. I tell her not to do that. Of course, being a 2 1/2 year old, she ignores me completely. I use a more authoritarian voice and she reacts immediately:”No, Opa, you can’t talk like that. Daddy can.”