He's nice, but he's no Spongebob
My dad takes off on a road trip out west every year and is usually gone for over two weeks. He just returned from his latest trip yesterday and stopped by our house on his way back home. He missed Autumn and wanted to see her before he crashed for the evening.
He scooped Autumn up in his arms and sat down with her on the couch. Autumn has this annoying habit of only wanting to look at you if she’s in someone else’s arms and skillfully avoids eye contact by pretending to be enthralled with the lint on your shirt. I don’t know if it’s a baby thing or if she’s already developed issues with intimacy, but my dad had a heck of a time coaxing a smile out of her.
“Don’t you remember me?” he asked.
Autumn looked up at him with a blank, stoned look that may have had more to do with the 6 oz of formula she had just guzzled down than a failure to recognize her grandpa.
When she looked at me, I clapped and said, “Yay!” She loves when I do this and smiled at me, but the moment she looked up at my dad she dialed the smile back down to a benign look of disinterest. Dad turned her around so that she was facing him, but she craned her neck back in a motion most often seen performed by circus folk. She wanted to see what was playing on the TV rather than pay attention to her grandpa.
“Well, I guess she comes by that naturally,” he said. He sounded a bit sad and I did feel bad for him, but at the same time I have had entire conversations with my father during which half the time I had to ask, “Dad, are you listening to me?” because the TV was on at the same time.
As he was leaving, my dad stopped halfway down the stairs that lead to our garage and tried one more time to get Autumn to smile by playing peek-a-boo. That did the trick and she FINALLY gave him what he wanted by bursting into a wee smile that lasted all of two seconds.
It's tough to compete with the TV.
He scooped Autumn up in his arms and sat down with her on the couch. Autumn has this annoying habit of only wanting to look at you if she’s in someone else’s arms and skillfully avoids eye contact by pretending to be enthralled with the lint on your shirt. I don’t know if it’s a baby thing or if she’s already developed issues with intimacy, but my dad had a heck of a time coaxing a smile out of her.
“Don’t you remember me?” he asked.
Autumn looked up at him with a blank, stoned look that may have had more to do with the 6 oz of formula she had just guzzled down than a failure to recognize her grandpa.
When she looked at me, I clapped and said, “Yay!” She loves when I do this and smiled at me, but the moment she looked up at my dad she dialed the smile back down to a benign look of disinterest. Dad turned her around so that she was facing him, but she craned her neck back in a motion most often seen performed by circus folk. She wanted to see what was playing on the TV rather than pay attention to her grandpa.
“Well, I guess she comes by that naturally,” he said. He sounded a bit sad and I did feel bad for him, but at the same time I have had entire conversations with my father during which half the time I had to ask, “Dad, are you listening to me?” because the TV was on at the same time.
As he was leaving, my dad stopped halfway down the stairs that lead to our garage and tried one more time to get Autumn to smile by playing peek-a-boo. That did the trick and she FINALLY gave him what he wanted by bursting into a wee smile that lasted all of two seconds.
It's tough to compete with the TV.
