Sebastian

My youngest grandson turned five months old this week. He is just leaving the infant stage and beginning to observe and grapple with the world around him. Soon he will be walking, and pulling things out of the cabinets, and mastering his universe. He is smart. All grandchildren are smart and beautiful. And he knows that I am somebody who plays a role in his life. There’s that twinkle of recognition in his eyes whenever I suddenly appear in his field of vision.

Tonight I was his babysitter for a few hours. He did his obligatory crying thing in an attempt to guilt his parents for not including him in their outing. After they were out of the door and out of earshot, however, he settled down for an evening of intermittent napping and listening to his Grandpa sing silly songs. When Mom and Dad came home a couple of hours later they found their little man asleep on the old man’s shoulder. We were bonding in slumber.

The little man is called Sebastian, and I am a very lucky Grandpa for getting to live so close to him.