Octoboy and the Grilles

In 2009, at the tender age of fifty-one, author Pete Brown was thrust into a new phase of his life: Papa-hood. As a singer-songwriter and a rock and roll kind of guy, he wasn't interested in being called Grandpa and would actually have preferred to go by Pete. But Papa was what he and his family finally settled on.

He and his wife, Roni, often cared for their six grandchildren, but Pete has always had a special bond with his sole grandson, Norbie. His nickname, OctoBoy, came about because from the time he gained his motor skills, he had very fast hands—as if he had eight of them, in fact. The sole boy in the family, Norbie often referred to his sisters and cousins as the grilles (his way of saying girls).

In this age of social media, Pete would often post things online that the kids had said or done that were either cute or just downright hysterical, mostly just to share what happened with out-of-town relatives. Now, using those posts, he shares his memories of funny moments and quotes out of the mouths of babes from his experiences as Papa to OctoBoy and the grilles.