Babies, Grads, and Blessings All

My goodness. Everybody told me about a lot of things to expect about being a grandmother. Things like "your life will never be the same" and "you can't imagine how this little one will capture your heart" and "being a grandparent will change your life". And these things are all true.

But nobody ever told me what a totally exhausting job being a grandma is!

I suppose the fact that little Tyler was born the same week his Auntie Jessica was graduating from high school didn't help. Tyler was born Monday morning and spent his first two days in the neo-natal intensive care unit. So of course I was there every minute I could be. Then a day later, he came home. And of course, I was there every minute I could be. I cooked and cleaned and served my daughter. And I held the baby - a lot. And then my second daughter who lives way on the other side of the country in Boston decided at the very last minute that she absolutely could not stand to not be here with all the big family events happening - so she hopped on a plane and came home!!! And then Andrea had her ultrasound and we were invited to come and find out that our second grandbaby is a girl! Imagine that - we have a grandson and a granddaughter. God is just so good! And then we had a big celebration in our back yard for Jessica on Saturday. And then on Sunday, my baby, graduated from high school. We had a house full of company and we had the most fun. To say we are so proud of her is the biggest understatement of all time. She was given a special award at her graduation - the one called "The Ambassador for Christ Award". This award is given to one girl and one boy from the senior class each year. It was a total surprise to her and to us. And it says so much about her character. During the ceremony the entire class dispersed into the audience and gave flowers and hand written notes of love and appreciation to the people who have played special roles in their lives. It was a very emotional moment and one I will always remember. Looking at this picture you can see what a very blessed mama I am. All week long my heart has just been so full of happiness and blessings and my heart can't contain it all. So often these days it all comes spilling out of my eyes! Tears of happiness and joy.


Now that graduation is over I plan to spend a lot more time with this little guy. He is so sweet I could just eat him with a spoon! He is doing so well considering his difficult start in life. He is still a bit jaundiced but not enough to worry about. He is such a good baby. He never cries. He sleeps well. He nurses well for his mama. And yesterday when I held him, he held his head up all on his own and just looked all around the room.



Did you know that there is a learning curve to grandparenting? We are learning where we fit in and where we don't. It seemed really strange at first to leave our little grandson at the end of the day. After all, we had never had a baby we loved so much before that we left in someone else's care! Even it is was with our daughter and son in law. It just seemed odd to walk away and leave him. We thought perhaps we could share him - you know - we could take him home part of the time and his parents could come and visit! LOL! But alas, it doesn't work that way. So we love him and kiss him and snuggle him as much as we can - and then we leave him with his very capable and very loving mama and daddy. And we go home and talk about how amazing he is and how much he looks like us and how good he is! And we calculate when we can go see him again without being considered nuisances!

Here are some pictures of his nursery. We painted the walls in yellow stripes. I made the crib layette for Tyler. It was so fun to do. I even made the sheets for the crib - which turned out to be surprisingly easy.



It's kind of funny though. We spent so much time preparing his nursery - but he hasn't spent a moment in there! He is held almost all the time!

I want to say thank you to all of you who have posted lovely comments of congratulations. I have been behind in my blogging - but I intend to get around a visit all of you soon. As soon as life settles down a bit. I'm hoping that it will anyway. And I may even have something to blog about that doesn't contain baby news. But you probably don't want to take that to the bank!