Babbo and me!

I have, for the last six months or so, become a grandfather for the first time.

If you could take the essence of true beauty, innocence and joy, then wrap it up into a small bundle, you would have to call it Harleigh Walsh.

This little bundle of joy has melted the heart of one of life’s most hardened cynics, me!

She smiles from the moment she awakes, and, unlike most babies, is not constantly demanding attention.

This is probably because she doesn’t need to, she gets it whether she wants it or not.

My son and his partner dote on her, Kim, her mother is the typical over-protective mother.

If Harleigh drops her dummy (pacifier) Kim is just one step away from declaring it a crime scene.

We all have to stand back in case of contamination; if she could, she would have us all wear white protective crime scene suits.

The dummy is then removed and boiled, then sterilised before it allowed near Harleigh again.

If the child so much as coughs, her mother is convinced it’s the first signs of lung cancer!

She has the best of everything and is totally unaware of any of it; like all babies, as long as they are warm, dry, fed and loved nothing else matters much to them.

But I’m glad that my granddaughter has an over-protective mother, and not one who doesn’t care about her health and well being.

The poor child now has to grow up with all the oddities that we parents give to our children.

All year we say don’t go near strangers, but we don’t tell them why. Then, when Christmas comes around, we say, “See that big fat guy dressed in red over there? Yes the one with the obvious false beard who we can’t identify, go and sit on his knee. I know you’re scared, but if you sit on his knee he will climb into your bedroom late one night when we are all asleep, go on, sit on his knee!”

Then we have the ‘tooth fairy’ An unknown entity that flies into a child’s bedroom to harvest body parts!

Then, if they’re not good children, the bogeyman will come and get them. I think I would prefer to take my chances with strangers.

Even though I’m a cynic's cynic, I do love creating a world of fairies for children. I grew up with grandparents that made my world a magical world.

I live in a wood, in a house not a tree. And when my son was small we would write letters to the fairies and leave them in fairy holes in trees. The next day we would go back to where we had left the letter and the fairies would have answered  my son's letter.

Only a few days ago I took Harleigh down into the woods and introduced her to all the fairies. I’m fitting a fairy door this week for when Harleigh comes to stay.

If you are not aware what a fairy door is, they are very small doors that you can buy and fit to your skirting board allowing only fairies to enter your house.. This is where Harleigh will leave her letters to the fairies.

Our fairies, by the way, are gentle fun loving and caring!

But there’s one thing that doesn’t fit right with my new status as old Grandpa, and that’s the title. I’m not a granddad type, I might look like one, but I find it very difficult to behave like one.

So I’m teaching Harleigh to call me ‘Babbo’, which is an affectionate term for a father in Italy. So to Harleigh my son is her Papa and I’m just old Babbo.

 

And may I just add  - I’m a very lucky old Babbo!