Monday, July 28, 2008

Papa Paul's

So in an effort to help Joli distinguish between her grandfathers, we now call Joe's Dad "Papa", my Stepdad "Grandpa", and my Dad "Papa Paul". It's been very confusing to figure out, but it has basically come down to what she can say. I still think we should call my stepdad "GP", as we call my mom "GG" because she is Grandma Gaye, and my stepdad is Grandpa Pat, but we're still working on his name so we'll see.

Last night we had dinner at Papa Paul's, and even though Joli did not have much of a nap, she still was her usual sweet self and made everyone laugh. Much to Papa Paul's dismay, Joli insisted that the rocks belonged on the deck, and continuously scooped handfuls on the deck until something else distracted her. Then she would wander off and Papa Paul would brush the rocks back onto the ground. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Every once in while my Stepsister Holly would wander through and Joli would give her wonderful presents of rocks as well.
After awhile we convinced Joli to come inside so we could talk with Lori (my stepmom) while she made dinner. Joli was fine with it, as long as there were "colors".
After dinner Joli convinced Papa Paul to come outside and turn the hose on for her. I think they both really enjoyed it! Papa Paul would hold the hose, and Joli would hold the bucket, and once there was what she felt was too much water in the bucket, she would dump in out and then put it back under the hose.
Joli really seemed to enjoy this game, and didn't seem to mind that most of her "dumps" were aimed at her shorts.
" Look what I'm doing Mommy! Isn't it great!!"
Then she dumped one last time to make sure she was mostly soaked through, and quickly lost interest in the "fun" game.
I didn't mind that she was wet as we drove back to Aunt Karen's, but we were driving my cousing Paige's car, and the rear passenger window was broken so I couldn't roll it back up. So I put Joli's sweatshirt on her and covered her with her blankie. It was okay for awhile, but as we got closer I could hear her saying "It's cold, it's cold", only to look back and see that she has pulled the blanket up over her head to completely block the wind!What a silly girl!

2 comments:

Laume said...

Even if you use names she can't pronounce yet, she'll learn soon enough. As long as YOU can pronounce it. I think GP and GG sounds cute. Isn't Papa Paul sort of a mouthful? Did your dad specifically want to be Papa? It's interesting as I never really thought about all this grandparents names thing as a child. My grandparents (of which I only had two sets) went by the name Grandma (my grandfathers were both passed away, one before I was born, one when I was really young) and then their last name. As an adult, when my kids were born, I realized that even though it hadn't bothered me and I'd been close to my grandmothers, it seemed weird when I thought about it that I called them by their last names. Too formal. So I called my kids grandparents Grandpa or Grandma followed by their first names. But I didn't think to ask them. And here all the new parents of this generation seem to spend a lot of time working it out. I didn't want to be Grandma just because that seemed to be my mom's name already. Grammy seems to have settled in fine. Although did I tell you Joshua wanted to call me Grandma when I was down there? I told him whatever and he tried it out and then forgot and called me Grammy again.
Your dad looks completely smitten with Joli in the photos. Do we look like that too? What silly grandparents we all are!

Laume said...

Hmmm, that should be "when I was UP there" - Seattle is north of us.