Chinese Version
11-13-2023， Monday, Sunny
Each week, the working class’s busiest day is usually Monday.
Today is Monday, Ben, my little grandson goes to daycare; Alex goes to the office, and my daughter works at home. I am always at home. Today I am taking care of Meimei, my more than three months old granddaughter.
In the afternoon after picking up Ben from daycare, my daughter had to work, and Meimei was sleeping soundly, so I was in charge of taking Ben to his before-dinner nap, accompanying him drinking milk and changing his diapers, which allowed me to accidentally witness Ben’s logic in action.
After Daylight Saving Time ended at November 5th, it gets dark after 5 pm in San Jose, so we stopped going out for a walk after dinner, because it gets even darker after our dinner at 7 pm. On Monday, after a busy working day and a homemade dinner, my daughter, Alex, and I walked between the dining room and the living room, following and playing with our active Ben while chatting about trivial things.
Because there is no TV at home, my daughter often jokes: “Ben is our TV.” Looking at Ben who was concentrated on playing his toys, I told the story of Ben that I saw in the afternoon. I accompanied Ben, who was lying on the single bed next to his crib, holding a bottle of milk, and drinking by himself. After I knelt down and took off his shoes and socks, he started to kick his bare feet in the air while drinking. When I stood up and bent over to take off his pants and change his diaper, he suddenly kicked his feet in my direction very quickly. Before I could escape, he kicked my left hip bone and it really hurt. I bent over looked at Ben and said, “Ben, your feet are for kicking soccer balls, not for kicking people. It hurts when you kick me.” After hearing what I said, Ben looked at me and immediately put down the milk bottle to use both his hands to grab his right foot towards his face. I was confused and wondered what was going on? So I stopped moving to watch him curiously. I saw him using both hands to bring his toes close to his mouth and blowing on his toes very seriously. Then he let go of his hands so his foot returned to the normal position. He picked up the bottle and continued to drink milk. I suddenly realized that Ben was blowing pain, because every time he bumped into something or fell down, we would blow on where he felt pain, which is a ritual for blowing off the pain to clam him. When he heard me saying it hurt, he grabbed his toes and blew off the pain, as his toes probably felt pain when they hit my hip bone.
After hearing this story, Alex and my daughter laughed. As Meimei started talking loudly while sitting on the high chair in the dinning room for a while, I picked her up. My daughter reminded me: “Mommy, today Meimei had a story too.” Then I told them Meimei’s story. At 11:30 this morning, I went to wake up Meimei who had been sleeping for more than two hours. She was sleeping soundly and could not open her eyes, so I held her shoulders to put her in a sitting pose to wake her up. After sitting on her little bed for a while with her eyes closed, Meimei opened her eyes and looked at me, then the corners of her mouth dropped, without making a sound or crying out, as if to say: “Grandma, I don’t like this position.” I quickly picked her up and then described Meimei’s expression to her mother, my daughter, adding: “Meimei has a really good temper.”
After hearing this, Alex said that he also had a story about Meimei from the office today. This immediately drew our attention. While chatting in the office today, a technician asked Alex: “How is your daughter?” Alex said: “My daughter is very good.” After hearing them talking about Alex’s daughter, another technician held up his cell phone and walked over, pointing to a photo on his phone and said: “Look, this is Alex’s daughter. Whenever I feel stressed or tired at work, I look at her photo. She immediately makes me feel better.” Here, Alex also took out his cell phone and pulled out the photo of Meimei the technician was talking about. This photo made my daughter and I both laugh. Meimei in the photo has pointing up hair, while smiling happily, her eyes are bent down, her mouth is closed and the corners of her mouth are turned up, her little face is full of flesh, and her double chin is as wide as her face. I guess anyone who sees our Meimei in this photo will feel happy. Looking at Meimei’s photo, I said that she had vomited twice today despite not spitting up for a long time. After hearing this, my daughter said: “It’s OK, as it said online that the baby may spit up milk again after four months due to some organ development. It seems that Meimei’s organ development is normal!”
On a cold and dark evening in autumn, after a busy day and homemade dinner in a warm home, watching Ben on TV, playing with him, and chatting about trivial and interesting things, it is very nourishing. This is one of the joys of raising babies.
