Daddy Hair

[This is one of my favorite grandparenting stories. We are spending the week diving with this young man who is now almost sixteen.] 

            “I’m gonna be a daddy,” our three year old grandson, Tyler announced as he strolled into the restaurant to meet us for lunch.

Tyler lives about two hours and fifteen minutes away from us—less if there are no speed traps. Sometimes we meet at a restaurant at the halfway point for a visit. This day, our son, Ron, had left on a long business trip, and Lori was hoping to ease the good-bye with the excitement of lunch with Grandma and Grandpa.

Now Tyler, being the self-confident young man that he is, always enters a place as if everyone was poised, waiting just for his appearance. It wasn’t any different this afternoon. He strutted up to the table, nodding at people as he went along, then made his announcement.

“I’m gonna be a daddy.”

“You’re gonna be a daddy?” I asked hoping for clarification.

“Yup.” He nodded his head and sighed as if it were a heavy burden. “Mommy will tell you.”

Well, you don’t mention becoming a daddy and not perk up a grandmother’s ears. I immediately looked for my daughter-in-law to confirm what I suspected. She was a little slower in arriving at our table being laden with a diaper bag, sippy cups, and a toddler on her hip who is as shy as her brother is outgoing.

“Tyler’s gonna be a daddy?” I blurted out before even offering to help her.

“Tell you in a minute.” She was struggling to get Danielle to agree to sit in the highchair next to Grandpa. I helped with the other paraphernalia and assisted in opening the bag of crayons the restaurant had given Tyler. Finally, Lori slumped in her chair and took a deep breath.

“So?” I raised my eyebrows. I had been patient. She was sitting down. Tell me, tell me, tell me, my head kept shouting.

“You can thank your son for the daddy idea,” Lori finally said. “Tyler noticed the hair on Ron’s chest the other day. Ron told him it was daddy hair and when he got hair on his chest, he could be a daddy, too. The other day in the bathtub, he noticed he had hair on his legs and he figured that was good enough—he could be a daddy.”

It wasn’t the answer I was expecting, but there was no disappointment. Ron and Lori haven’t planned past two and those two promise to provide a lifetime of entertainment.

“Well, if we shaved the hair on his legs, does that mean he could be a mommy?” I asked.

To her credit, Lori politely asked me not to plant that idea in his head.