Pip’s Great Grandfather is incredible, literally.
Our little man is a chatterbox at the best of times, his things to talk about list is essentially inexhaustible; as is the number of people he can find to talk to. When we saw one of my (very real) uncles last week, I think he was slightly taken aback by this three year old that he’s not seen since he was a baby telling him as many things as he possibly could. My uncle lives alone at the moment, and his social interactions have been seriously limited by Covid19. Pip probably said more words to him in 15 minutes that he had in a full week during lockdown, which must have been quite a lot to take in. Pip also lacks any of the social awareness to note when someone wants to finish the conversation which is often hilarious. At least my uncle is family, but he’ll also accost random strangers in the supermarket queue or the park to give a detailed account of all the things his Great Grandfather has done.
“Did you know?’’ pipes up a voice from the backseat as we’re driving somewhere, “my Great Grandfather was really old and he built a trampoline (wait for it) with no sides.”
Sometimes it is a statement such as this, or sometimes a very involved story about how his Great Grandfather’s finger fell off because he bashed it really really hard and it was made of plastic.
That his Great Grandfather built a rocket ship with real fire is a favourite. But on any given day he might be responsible for the creation of a play ground, a really big house or a boat, or the discussion might turn to where he went to school - PC School in case you were wondering. He’s also really good at colouring and most feats of technical expertise.
We have tried to tell him about his actual real Great Grandfathers. He does know a couple of things, but the bit that’s stuck is that one Great Grandad (my mum’s dad), was Donald, and this is where Uncle Donald got his name. Except that he’s got it backwards, so sometimes the story starts (with his head cocked to one side and his very earnest expression and tendency to nod) “You know my really old Great Grandfather Uncle Donald…”
It is pretty hilarious. I probably ought to be keeping better record of it all so I can produce some kind of compendium of the Many Works and Wonders of Pip’s Legendary Great Grandfather. I’m pretty sure, just his way of working through all the stuff he’s seen and heard about - Sally had a brief phrase of talking about how she missed her great-grandparents (even though she’d never met them) at about his age, so I wasn’t especially surprised when Pip started chatting about them. Sometimes, he just pipes up to tell us that his Great-Grandad is really old and he’s dead, in an utterly matter of fact tone. But Pip has definitely won with the inventiveness and longevity of the obsession. I think I’m going to miss hearing about all his adventures when he moves on from this.
Also, I’d so much prefer to hear endless Great Grandfather stories than have as me “Why” a hundred times an hour!
Anyone else's kids go through this strange obsession? I don't think its quite imaginary friend status, but it is pretty close.
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