Level Three. Grandparent Plight.

Level Three. Grandparent Plight.

By Michelle Lloyd.

Grandpa was a bit of an inventor. Well, a lot of an inventor was he and amongst many of his inventions was the gadgets, games and gismos that Little Herbert had loved. The inventions had been taken to heart by Little Herbert and had earned him much respect in his class.

It was true that there was a fair distance between the houses of Little Herbert and grandpa. Travel was needed each time they wanted to visit. However, grandpa’s house had needed a bit of a repair job and because of this he had been asked to come and stay with Little Herbert and his dad.

Excitement had been felt in abundance and this was on both sides. Grandpa could regale Little Herbert with many a tale of inventions gone right and wrong. ALL of these anecdotes Little Herbert found hilarious to the extreme. In finding out that grandpa was coming to live with them, albeit temporarily, the excitement factor just rose and grew.

Little Herbert imagined all sorts of scenarios whereby his grandpa and him were involved in funny antics and escapades. It was difficult to think of how they were going to fit in all of the things that Little Herbert had planned for them to do but eventually he had organised and prioritised the most important objectives. Without the distance between them Little Herbert had envisaged that there would be so much more time for him to spend with grandpa.

Finally the day came when grandpa was meant to arrive. It had all started out so well but Little Herbert soon discovered that all was not as he had primarily thought.

It was as the knock on the door sounded grandpa’s arrival that both Little Herbert and his dad made their way to the front of the house to let him in. Smiling and in full grandpa mode in he came, along with the bags, boxes, rolled up pieces of what looked to be malleable metal sheets and a folded up additional coat that appeared to wiggle every time Little Herbert looked at it. Oh yes, grandpa had definitely arrived all right and dad could not get over how much stuff he had brought with him, but when asked about it he simply replied that he had only brought what he could not have left behind.

It was fantastic for Little Herbert to watch as his grandpa slowly settled into his new surroundings. Less seemingly happy was dad, who kept trying to move all the new belongings about. Grandpa, oblivious to all the re-arranging that was going on, decided to introduce his Little Herbert to his famous and latest invention of the wiggling, wriggling coat!

Little Herbert was beside himself to know what was making the coat move like that. Was there a secretly concealed motor somewhere inside there? The questions kept coming and grandpa directed Little Herbert over to find out what type of mechanism was in there.

Little Herbert gently approached the coat and with an out stretched gesture of investigation began to pull at the material of the coat. In return, there was another firm wiggle from the coat. No more poking or prodding would or could do and instead Little Herbert’s excitement got the better of him. Having pulled up the coat from on top of the sofa where grandpa had placed it, two little eyes peered up at the three pairs all staring down at him.

It was that what ensued became known as the very busy grandpa staycation whereby Grandpa’s objective was to do as many activities as he possibly could with Little Herbert. They invented, built said inventions or at least attempted to do their best, with the materials that grandpa had brought with him. They traipsed through dad’s shop, unknowingly disturbed and perturbed customers, nearly wrecked the house with their new inventions and all while dangerously running about and cleaning up after one extremely messy few week old puppy, who grandpa had promised to look after for a friend.

The grandpa staycation had all turned into a bit of a plight and in the end, dad had to have words. It was all rather awkward for a while as grandpa tried to promise that no offence had been taken and dad ensured that no insult had been meant but the situation really could not continue. As if to make the point further, one little misbehaving puppy made his own feelings on the matter quite apparent on the carpet.

Little Herbert had been having all kinds of fun but even he had to admit that it was a much more calm type of happy when grandpa stopped ramping up his grandparent experience and they pick and chose their daily objectives much more wisely.