As many of you know I have my grandson Gannon here at my house about three days a week and I do childcare for him. He really makes my life interesting and he always has me laughing. I thought I would share a few stories with you of what I call Gannonisms.
Gannon just turned three and has had a lot of struggles in his little life. Speech is something that has been a challenge. In fact, he met with a speech therapist for about six months to help him. At about Christmas time of last year, he totally blossomed and is doing much better. He still however has a few quirks.
One of his silliest quirks is how he talks about things in the negative. After getting in trouble for running in my house he might say to me, “I run not Grandma Joey”. That means he won’t run anymore. It just cracks me other.
Whenever he wants to the say the negative form he says the positive form then adds the word not at the end.
The other day when he was here I made scrambled eggs and patty hashbrowns. The hashbrowns had just come from the air fryer. The hashbrown was hot and I told him it was hot. I looked over and he was blowing on the hashbrown. Then he said, “I blow it hot not.”
Bahahahhaa. He’s so funny.
Another day I had him with for a trip to town to get groceries. We stopped at Goodwill as I’m always looking for sheet to back quilts and picture frames for my cross stitch stuff. He was in the cart and he saw this…
He said, “Look Grandma Jo. It mindcraft”.
First of all, if you don’t have young kids or grandkids, you might not know about Mindcraft. Its a video game and everything on it is pixilated or boxy. See the photo below.
When Gannon looked at the napkin holder he thought it looked like Mindcraft and in a way, it does.
But…do any of you… recognize the napkin holder??
My parents had one along with matching salt and pepper shakers. I remember it from growing up back in the 70s. My parents had given a money donation to an Indian Reservation school (I think) and as a “gift” for giving a donation. One year they got a napking holder and another year they got the salt and pepper shakers.
It just gave me a little smile to think my time in the 70s was connected to my present day life in the 2020s. It’s hard to believe it is a 50 year span from the time my parents got them to present day when Gannon and I saw them at Goodwill.
Gannon and Carver are so different. I’ve told you before that with my own boys, Buck is rough and tumble. Things wash off him much easier. Karl is more thoughtful. Buck is the talker and Karl the listener. It’s so much the same with Carver and Gannon. Carver is the Buck. Gannon is the Karl. I see it so often.
The other day Gannon was naughty and chased Rosie with a play soft stuffed fishing pole. Rosie ran to me to get away from Gannon and Gannon ran right to me still trying to get Rosie. I took the pole away from him and told him to look at Rosie and see she was sad. Then I took the pole and asked him if he wanted me to poke him with it. Just like that, he dropped and was on the floor crying and crying. I didn’t touch him with the pole. I just changed my tone of voice to stern and wasn’t even yelling. Gannon was in tears.
I’ve told you that toilet training had been a challenge due to the trama he had with BM as a baby. Here he is at just a month old with his terrible belly issues.
He’s completely potty trained and doing quite well with BM but not all the way there. The other day he went totally unprompted. I was singing his praises…I was telling him how proud I was of him. I told he was getting so big and if he keeps it up, he will get to go on the school bus.
Very proudly Gannon says, “Ev-body be so proud of me!” IT was so-so precious. He’s come such a long way. I am so thankful that he’s come as far as he has.
In other ways…he still has a way to go. He’s all boy and all of three. He had a bit of runny nose last week. I’ve been working super hard with him to use a tissue on his own. He doesn’t do the best and I’ve caught him a time or two wiping his nose nose with the sleeve of his shirt. (Totally normal for kids his age but very disgusting)
I had talked to him about it earlier in the week and I felt like he was doing a little better. It was Friday and he just came and I said to him, “Hey Gannon, what’s on your shirt today?” I totally meant the John Deere tractor that was on his belly. I was just making conversation with him as he came in the door and dad had just left. Gannon slowly looked at his sleeve, looked up at me. Then Gannon looks at me and says, “That be okay!”
Anytime Gannon is in trouble, “That be okay,” is his response. Again, I couldn’t help but smile and then dealt with his shirt.
I think we all need to have a little of Gannon’s “that be okay” attitude.
Gannon is totally in love with onion rings. Seriously. So when we went and got groceries the other day I took him to Culvers and got him onion rings while I hit up the Mexican Taco Truck.
I snapped this picture and sent it to Kalissa…The Culver’s tag was still suck to rear veiw mirror while I waited for my food.
Yep…that boy is a little spoiled.
One last thing before I close…
Gannon’s middle name is Joseph. That’s after me- Jo and Jospeph. We all Gannon, Gannon Jo or even Ganjo.
Well when Gannon says his name he calls himself Gannon Jo-fuss. He can’t say Joseph…instead it is Jo-fuss.
The other day I was playing with him and told him that our names match and we’re both Jo. He smiled and now I’ve caught him a time or two calling me Grandma Jo-fuss. It’s so cute and I just love it.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I just love my time with Gannon. I wouldn’t trade it for all the money in the world. He continues to be a balm to my soul.
These moments are what keeps us going! Just love it!
love it. I have to admit I had sort of waiting for Gannon to have a bit of the spotlight after his spotty beginnings. All the testing and ER trips and suddenly not hearing much and wondering about how things were turning out for him and the family also. thanks for sharing.
The times that are so precious!!! No other words for it!! Beyond special!
:o))
Reading about Gannon and his special time with Jo fuse is precious. So cute
Oh so cute!! Such fun little quirks you know he will outgrow and then you’ll miss them. Continue to enjoy this time with him. He is the winner!
Jo, Gannon is definitely a sweetheart! Very expressive little fella! Any very precious.
I also keep my grandson after school or on teacher duty days. He is now 8 years of age. He and I are very close since I have been keeping him while his parents are working since he was a baby. I treasure those times with him but I see him being more and more independent. So sad but I know they have to grow. I don’t think that our closeness with disappear anytime soon. Kids are a treasure whether our own kids or the grands.
That is so incredibly sweet, and makes me smile. Give Gannon a hug from me! As he grows, I hope he gets fewer and fewer health issues. That napkin holder looks familiar, and I think my grandma may have had one.
This makes me cry! What a blessing you are to each other!! From the time Gannon was born, he has had my heart just by reading about him on your blog and Kalissa’s blog as well. What a great boy and a great Grandma Jo-fuss!
He doesn’t realize it now, but when he’s older he’ll see how precious his time with you has been. He’s is building precious memories every time you are together. He’ll talk about times with Grandma Jo-fuss.
I am especially fond of the little speech quirks that kids have. I know they won’t last, so I enjoy them before they grow out of them. Gannon sure has some cute ones. Right now I am enjoying how my not quite 2 year old granddaughter is making some words plural. She ends with a sh , so colorsh not colors, for example. And I heard my 4 yr old grandson telling her how he was always going to take care of her and protect her with his big muscles cause she’s his cousin.
Oh my heart! How blessed we are to have this time with our grands.
Gannon Jofuss is Precious. I know you love all your grands but he puts the sparkle in your eyes.
Is love,y when they have a special name for you, mine called me nanniereeree, sometimes it was Nannie wee wee but I never minded.
Your blog post made me smile, Jo. Thanks for brightening my day :-)
I remember those S&P shakers and napkin holder–my parents in PA must have contributed to the same Indian mission! Small world.
You will treasure these memories always.
You speak of language and speech issues. As a retired teacher of children with hearing loss, I have to ask if he has had his hearing tested. Sometimes a small hearing loss can be a problem. If a child is not hearing all of the speech sounds, he cannot repeat them correctly, especially in the years he is learning to talk. But, of course, someone involved with his care has probably already thought of that.
Blessings to you both.
Gannon has had his hearing tested several times as he has had lots of ear infections and tubes in his ears. He’s really improved over the last three months.
You’re having those special moments with a special little boy – moments that will be treasured later on, especially by Gannon! Thank you for sharing and adding some special to my morning, too!
Gannon & my Grandson Sam are quite similar. Sam is 7, but that’s about their only difference. When he was 2 or 3, whenever you asked him a question and he didn’t know the answer, it would be “not know” or “can’t know”. To this day we still joke between the adults if we “not know” something. Now keep in mind, he has reached the age of 7: there are days he is not good at taking the 10-15 steps to the Kleenex box and will use his shirt sleeve!!! Boys, what would we ever do without them! Hugs,