Becoming Papouli

The greek word for Grandpa is Papou. When my first grandchild was born in 2014 we decided that Helen and I would go by the greek terms, YiaYia and Papou, while our son-in-laws parents would be called Grandma and Grandpa. Seemed like the perfect way to  differentiate between families.

When I retired in at the beginning of 2015 we had one granddaughter and another on the way. No big deal, we could handle it. Or so I thought. When my new career as Papou started I thought it would be easy, after all the plan was that when the grandkids visited, we would play with them for a bit, then load them up with sugar and then send them home to torment their parents. Every grandparents dream, right? Well to paraphrase the old saying – No plan survives first contact with the grandkids.

When our first granddaughter started to talk, one of her first words was Papou. Boy did that make me feel good. She was always looking for Papou, I was the man! When our first she was old enough to walk and talk, it thrilled me that every time I saw her as she would always walk up to me and say “UP” holding her hands in the air. Papou became the go to guy for fun. Wanted to go outside and play, just say Papou and it happened, wanted a book read, just hold the book up and say Papou and your being read to (this one also worked great with Yiayia).

Then one day she walked into our house and called me Papouli and I loved it. She had her own name for me!

And then my second granddaughter began to walk and talk. So now it’s stereo. I can no longer pick up one grandchild without the second one wanting the same treatment.  Now I know I could tell both grandkids No, but what kind of Papou would that make me? So instead I pick them both up and we walk around for awhile and then I put them down. Also the second granddaughter  really loves music, you put music on and she will start to dance. So I did something not so bright one day, music was playing so I picked her up and we danced. Now of course I have to pick up two of them and dance with them at the same time.  So now standard mode is if all the grandkids are together, I know I will be carrying two of them. No problem, it’s good exercise.