Lesson from Grandma: Address earworm

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Last time I visited Bubby, he and Megan shared with me a recent lesson he'd learned.

"What do you do when there's an emergency?" Megan asked my 3.75-year-old grandson.

"Call 911," he proudly responded, showing Gramma exactly what numbers to press on Mommy's cell phone.

I was indeed proud of Bubby. I was concerned, though, when I later asked him what he'd tell the 911 operators if they asked him where he lived and he didn't have an answer.

See, Megan and the family had just moved into a new house mere days before my visit. It was Bubby's third home since being born, and he recalls each as "Old House No. 1," "Old House No. 2," and "New House." While living in Old House Nos. 1 and 2, there was really no need for Bubby to be able to recite his address. With New House, though, he should—for lots of reasons, including the outside chance he may one day need to call 911.

Many folks think a call into the 911 system will automatically log a person's location, so technically there's no longer concerns that a child know how to tell responders his address. That's not necessarily true when it comes to cell phones, as it depends on the cell phone provider, the tower a call goes through and more. Leaving location tracking to a cell phone in an emergency can lead to disastrous results, in some cases. I don't want my grandson—or any of my loved ones—to be one of those cases.

So I set to teaching Bubby his address for New House. By song.

I made up a simple tune to go with the simple words of, "I live at XXXX <full street name>, XXXX <full street name>". Then I sang it to and eventually with Bubby off and on during the time I babysat the boys while Megan and Preston were away. Much to their dismay, I continued singing it now and again once Megan and Preston returned home, too. It became such an invasive earworm that Megan eventually groaned each time I started up.

I'm telling ya, though, I know the tune came in handy not only for Bubby, but for Megan, too. Having just moved to a new home, she didn't know the address off the top of her head. Thanks to my song, though, she had it down in no time.

It also came in handy for Preston. One day while Megan and the boys and I were having lunch at the kitchen table, Preston phoned from work. "What is our new address again?" he asked, needing the new info for something at work. Having heard him myself, I chuckled and started up the song. Megan shot me a don't-even-start-that-again look then easily recited the new address for her husband. Thanks to my little ditty, I'm sure.

When I returned home, I shared that ditty with my other daughters and with Jim. They'll surely need to know it for sending mail to our desert-dwelling family members. I'm pretty sure they'll be singing it next time they address a letter to Megan.

I certainly do. Each time I prepare a package or letter for Bubby or his family, I sing the unforgettable tune—sometimes in my head, sometimes out loud. Then I text Megan to say, "I just put a package in the mail...and guess what's now stuck in my head?" Her response? "Don't even...!"

I like to drive my family nuts by providing ever-so-annoying earworms. More so, though, I like helping my grandsons in concrete ways that make a difference, things that go beyond just having fun together. Teaching Bubby his address for New House covered all bases surprisingly well.

Of course, I don't want that lesson to be tested by Bubby needing to recite it for 911 operators in the event of a real emergency. No, groans from Mommy as Bubby sings out his address for her again and again will be more than enough proof that Gramma's lesson had its intended effect.

Today's fill-in-the-blank:

The last thing I learned or taught through song was _______________.

The Saturday Post: If-I-had-an-iPhone 4 edition

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I don't have an iPhone 4—mine is a 3GS. But if I did have an iPhone 4, wherein the camera faces front, I'd put it in Jim's guitar and have him strum away just to see if I could capture something as cool as this:

Pretty nifty, don't ya think?

Happy Saturday!

3 ways Pinterest made Gramma awesome

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Simple, inexpensive ideas I found on Pinterest that convinced Bubby of Gramma's awesomeness:

Shaving cream bath paints.

Cardboard ramps for his cars.

 

<photo of Bubby in the tub with glow sticks removed by Lisa because perverts flocked to it>

Glow sticks in the bath tub.

Today's question:

Do you prefer taking baths or taking showers?

Saturday Post: Sharing too much edition

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I love the enlightening videos from TED. I found this one especially inspiring, despite its silliness, because it makes me consider that we...okay, that I...may be sharing far too much — and too often — online.

Time for me to stop sharing, back away from the screens, and spend my Saturday outside!

(I originally saw this on TED, but the TED player embeds wonky so I grabbed the YouTube version.)

Today's question:

What are your Saturday plans? (Do share!)

8 ways the iPhone makes this grandma smile

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This is the iPhone 4; I got the cheaper iPhone 3GS.I got an iPhone a few weeks ago. I think I'm in love. It makes me smile. Here's how:

One: The speaker phone is 2.3 billion times better than the one on my last phone (the speaker phone I never even figured out). It makes phone calls with Bubby much more fun...and understandable. And especially easy when Jim/PawDad wants to join the conversation.

Two: Apps, free apps, and more apps.

Three: It's fodder for long discussions with Brianna and Andrea. Who both have iPhones. Who both are much more savvy with their iPhone than I am with mine. And who both recommend awesome free apps for me to try.

Four: My iPhone helps me track my calories in hopes of looking and feeling better by the time I head to BlogHer '11. Via a free app Brianna recommended, called LoseIt. So far, so good. Of course, it's only been four days since I started using it, but it makes me smile when I'm below my allowed calorie count for the day. (We'll just ignore here the day it made me wince and whine as I was 883 calories over what it should have been. Darn cupcakes!)

Five: Bejeweled 2. On the phone. Need I say more? No, but I will anyway. You'd think I would play Scrabble or do crosswords or some other word-y time killer, but when I have a moment to de-stress and waste in a game, I want it to be mindless and wordless, as words fill my day from morning to night. Bejeweled has no words...unless you count the times the guy says "Excellent!" because I've made an excellent move. Which I do often. Because I'm awesome at the wordless game. And I can knock out a level or two in the time it takes the pasta to boil while fixing dinner.

Six: I now have (free) shiny, happy ringtones and text tones for people. Blues-y notes are Jim; Andie's are happy-go-lucky; Megan's include a bicycle horn each time she texts; and Brianna's ring — which makes me chuckle every darn time — is a robot voice that sounds just like her when she calls with her chirpy-chippy-chit-chat. Music to my heart each time my loved ones call...or text.

Seven: Less than 30 minutes after Mac was born, I had photos of him on my iPhone. Okay, my iPhone had nothing to do with it, as I would have gotten the same photos on my old phone, too. But Preston has an iPhone, which made it easy for the doting dad to take and text photos of the newborn. And that made me smile...even at 3:40 a.m. (Mountain time). And made me thankful for iPhones, even when they're not mine.

Eight: Even though my iPhone had nothing to do with getting the photos of Mac, it made a world of difference in my ability to forward those precious photos to Brianna and Andrea. And to Jim's phone. Even at 3:40 in the morning. Without my glasses on.

See? Lots of smiles that little more-expensive-than-I-expected-because-I-need-a-large-data-plan gadget brings. And this is just the beginning of the love affair! I've not yet even traveled with the thing, but I can just imagine the joy when I use a mobile boarding pass, check flight status in an instant, and keep tabs on my e-mail — and blog — without ever having to open my laptop (or depend on spotty airport Wi-Fi).

Consider, too, all the smiles there will surely be when I share with Bubby all the apps I downloaded just to impress and entertain him when I visit.

Yep, my iPhone just may turn out to be this grandma's very best friend.

Disclosure: This is not an ad, not a sponsored post, not anything more than my honest opinion. I love my iPhone...and no one has compensated me in any way for saying so. I wish they had. Maybe they should.

Photo © Apple

Today's question:

What is something you wish your phone could do, realistic or not?

Grandson No. 2 born!

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Baby Mac arrived at 2:10 this morning! Megan was on the phone with me barely 30 minutes later with the news. The healthy "big boy" weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces and was 20 inches long.

Mom, baby, and Dad are doing fine ... now that their hearts have returned to resting rate after a mad-dash, usually-45-minute drive to the hospital, with Megan having contractions every two minutes and "ready to kill my husband" and Preston worrying he'd have to "play doctor." Baby Mac was delivered 30 minutes after they got to the hospital. Shew! Megan had been induced, but this was a far different scenario than the doctor described when administering the newfangled induction method yesterday afternoon.

Hooray for babies, healthy moms, and fast-driving dads! And hooray for technology allowing this long-distance grandma to get to see the baby mere minutes after he was born! (Thanks, Preston, for the photos!)

Now back to our previously scheduled programming (see previous post).

Searching for sense

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Ever since publishing my I wanna be HGTV'd post, I've been inundated by visitors landing here via a search for "HGTV." I'm happy to have the hits but feeling a tad guilty that somehow many of those arriving think this site -- despite the granny panties hanging on the line above -- really is HGTV and proceed to request help with their kitchens, yards and double-wides.

I'm baffled.

So I decided to use my nifty Squarespace analytics tools to figure out how and why they've clicked to Grandma's Briefs when searching for HGTV. I hoped what I'd find would assuage the bit of guilt I feel for unknowingly duping some folks into thinking I can offer them help with their downtrodden homes.

Then I clicked over to my "Search Engine Queries Summary" and saw the number of searches ... and immediately gave up plans to assuage guilt, for in the past week, there have been 598 searches using keyword variations of HGTV (believe it or not, there apparently are variations of HGTV). That's FIVE HUNDRED AND NINETY EIGHT people who ended up on Grandma's Briefs instead of the HGTV website.

Why those 598 people might think the words "Grandma's" and "Briefs" are in any way related to "Home" and "Garden" -- regardless of what Google or Bing or Yahoo might say -- I don't know. And why, if they did go ahead and click out of curiosity, they would go so far as to honestly believe this site is the place to request help with their homes and comment with a request, I really don't know.

Like I said, I'm baffled.

The duped and downtrodden will have to remain such as I don't have the time -- and no longer the inclination -- to try to make sense of such things. (I did, though, take the time to tweet the HGTV Twitter account asking them to please help the confused folks who think I can offer them design assistance. No tweet back ... yet.)

Funny what you find, though, when you dig into a blog's analytics tools. In addition to the 598 hits to my site resulting from searches for HGTV (plus several other hits completely unrelated to grandparenting or grandmas or even briefs -- ya know, the things I do blog about), I actually did have visitors arriving via searches related to grandparenting and grandmas. Sort of.

Herein lies the "sort of." Below are the past week's grandma-related searches that baffle me most (the preceding number is search count):

2     how do i distance myself from my grandbaby (This is so not what Grandma's Briefs is about. How did such a search land them here? Funny thing is, it wasn't just one crabby grandma with intimacy issues searching for an answer, it was two!)

2     what should grandma carry in her purse (Meh. Sort of makes sense. Maybe my Grandma's Bag post lured them here.)

1     why are our grandkids always with the other grandparents? (I'm a jealous grandma. I admit it. But I didn't think it was that obvious.)

1     told grandma want a kiss for birthday (This one saddens me. I hope the grandchild in search of a kiss got one.)

1     craw cookie monster step by step (What the cuss is a 'craw cookie monster'?)

1     happy granmas (Okay, yeah, we do have those here.)

1     eating happy granmas (But we don't do this to them!)

1     www.verybiggestanimal (Hmmm ... and hmmm again. What more is there to say?)

1     hatch-n-grow dinosaur egg (Now this one makes sense. Glad to know I'm an expert on these, at least to the degree folks come here to find out more.)

1     grandma's tales for humidity (I do offer up a lot of hot air here, but no humidity. I don't think.)

Baffling, right? If you can make sense of these, do let me know.

I'm off to do a little searching of my own. To find out what the heck "craw cookie monsters" are. They just might be something worth adding to the Recipe Box -- or to News to Use as a warning to my dear readers to beware.

Who knows?

Photo credit: stock.xchng

Today's question:

Which search engine is your favorite and how often do you use it?

Three things I blame on technology

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Little kids no longer learn that telephones go brrrrring. 

Because phones no longer ring, they sing ... or scream or crow or play themes from horror flicks or annoying comedy shows.

Coworkers no longer gather around the water cooler to discuss last night's cliffhanger episode of their favorite television series.

Because everyone records shows, to watch on different dates, at different times. Or they catch it on Hulu or iTunes -- alone -- and can't say anything until they're sure others have seen it. By then the thrill, the urgency, the excitement is gone.

Dogs are no longer taught to fetch the newspaper.

Because the news is all read online. Or not at all.

I really shouldn't complain, though, because:

1. I hate talking on the phone.

2. I no longer work in an office so I never engage in chit chat with coworkers about favorite televsion shows.

3. My dogs don't fetch the paper -- which I actually do still read in print -- because some days, fetching the paper myself is about the only exercise I get because I spend much of my time sitting on my cuss blogging. Yet another thing I blame on technology. (Which is more acceptable than blaming it on lack of willpower and motivation, wouldn't you say?)

Photo credits: Click photos for source.

Today's question:

What do you blame on advances in technology?

Jekyll, Hyde and Bubby

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Bubby's mom, Megan, was an incredibly moody and sensitive child, the most senstive of my three daughters.

Based on our latest Skype visit with Bubby, seems that Megan's finally getting paid back for all she put her parents through.

From the heights of happiness to the depths of despair, I think Bubby covered it all in our 20-minute visit. All the while. Megan just shook her head, saying, "Yep, he's two."

He's not just two, Megan. He's just like you!

Today's question:

What question would you like to see asked of Grandma's Briefs readers?