Our grandson Tommy is staying with us for a few days. I picked up up from his home in Lynn on Monday morning, and he stayed overnight with us last night. This morning I took him back to Lynn for the Fourth of July block party on the street where he lives. The original plan was that I should leave him there and pick him up again tomorrow, but after a last-minute replan we decided that I should bring him back to Brookline for a few more days.
For a one year old, he has an impressive attention span. His favourite toy (here) is a shape-sorter box, and he’ll happily play with it for almost an hour without getting distracted.
There’s a quirky little game I’ve been playing with Tommy ever since… well, practically ever since he was born. Whenever he and I are together, I make a point of reciting Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky to him at least once a day. We’re probably up to 50 repetitions by now. At first there was no particular reaction; just what you’d expect when an infant hears a rhythmic chant in a bass register. Gradually he started to recognize and respond, and by the time he was eight or nine months old the almost-whispered poem would cause him to enter a near-trance state. (Hypnosis? Who knows. Not intentional, that’s for sure.)
Today I have only to begin “‘Twas brillig”, and he stops whatever he’s doing and gazes at me with a conspiratorial smile, anticipating the drama of “One, two! One, two! And through and through, the vorpal blade went snicker-snack!”, and the big hug that accompanies “O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”.
I wonder what he’ll make of it in a few years….