Little Grandkids

While recouperating, we have had a few visits from various family members, especially grandkids. I don't think there is anything more precious to a grandfather (or grandmother) than the company of little grandchildren.
And we have a number of the sweetest, most beautiful, talented, etc, etc, okay you can probably read some bias here. I think I was way too busy with making a living, serving in the church, taking care of the house, doing bills, and especially learning to be a father to truely enjoy two and three year olds. I must admit it is a lot easier being a grandparent since I don't have to discipline, teach, be consistent, be the judge, and everything else a parent has to be. I just have to be a grandpa.

Mostly that consists in spending time with them, sitting downstairs while they play, throwing balls up the stairs, eating their pretend food, and above all, listening to their chatter. With Laura, Stefanie's 13 month old, she is just learning to climb the stairs. So she just wants me to be on the stairs with her and grab her feet and pull her down on her tummy.

With Paul, Stefanie's 3 year old, it is all about balls. He loves balls. Any size, any color. He loves to throw them up the stairs have have them bounce back down. Actually, he loves to have grandpa throw them up the stairs and have them bounce down on him.

Since he is three, he also likes to go up to the top of the stairs and throw things over the railing. While that is fine with paper airplanes, and almost okay with small balls, we draw the line at trucks and cars (his other most favorite toys).

Paul loves to spend time with his cousin Abi. They are both three and have played together pretty much every week since they were born. Abi is a little older and pushed Paul around a lot when they were smaller. But now that Paul is bigger, it is a little harder for Abi to keep him under control. Watching them play together is a joy.

Brinna (pronouced bryn-a) is the youngest of our grandchildren. She is Rachel's second and is barely five weeks old. She does what most five week old girls do: sleep, eat, burble, cry, and poop. Little babies are wonders from heaven. There is no experience for a grandfather more tender or rewarding than holding a small baby while she sleeps. Especially the ones that like to cuddle.

Brinna loves to be warm. And fed. Even in the middle of summer she likes to be wrapped up in a blanket. Her sister adores her and likes to be a little mommy to her.


Abi is Rachel's three year old. She loves to play in our basement under the stairs where we have a little kitchen set up with pots and pans and fake food. We also have a slide for the kids and a bounce house that we set up when there are a number of them around. Abi also likes to Dance. Rachel takes her to a community dance class where a number of three year olds "dance" with their leotards and tutu's. There is a dance recital next week. It ought to be cute (and probably hilarious as well). Kudos to the patience of the dance instructor. Watching her try to keep the attention of 8 3-year-olds is like trying to get a bunch of kittens to march in formation.

A Week of Medical Abuse

This past week has been a bit of a trial for the two of us. On Monday, I had surgery on my right shoulder. I really expected that when the doctor said I would be up and around in a "few days" that I would actually feel better in a couple of days. I should have realized when I asked if I could go back to work on Thursday and he replied "probably not" that a doctor saying you will be up and around in a few days is something akin to the pilot saying "we may experience a little turbulence" on an airplane, a sure signal to sit down and cinch up your seatbelt.

On Tuesday Mary Ellen went in for her annual "smashogram". Then on Wednesday she went in again to get some cortisone shots in her back. For the last six weeks, she has been pretty miserable with back pain. We are hoping the shots help reduce the pain and let her get back to somewhat of a normal activity. It has been several weeks since she has been able to go into the Church Office Building and she really misses it. After the shots, the local anesthetic caused her feet to go numb. For a while, she couldn't really walk and I still wasn't up to helping her. Fortunately Eric and Sarah came over for a few hours to help out until the drugs wore off. They also kindly vaccuumed and cleaned a bit - a great help and lift to Mary Ellen.

We were able to go to church yesterday but we still aren't running any races. I will be in a sling for another week (yuck) but at least I got the pain catheter out and am no longer tethered to home.

I am not really sure how much of a "blogger" I am yet. I really am not one to talk much about myself. But being able to keep in touch with friends and families through their blogs is really inspiring.

Zoo Reviewed Renewed

We started nearly 30 years ago with the "Zoo Review", a weekly family letter printed on our first computer, a Compaq Portable, printed on an Epson RX80 dot matrix printer. The software was something basic but did allow columns and some graphics. It took us hours each week to produce it. Part of that was because we had all of the kids contribute (well, the ones that could write or at least talk). At some point, we may try to scan in some of the "archives".

Now we are finding that we are enjoying evenyone's blogs so much that we decided to give it a try. We hope it works better than the web pages we produced 2 years ago (it lasted about four months). We find that blogs help us keep in touch with neices, nephews, cousins, friends, and even children who live far away (and some not so far).

We thank all who spend a lot of time so far in post entries for us to enjoy, especially our two sons and neices Carol Ann and Mallory, and several others that I am forgetting right now.

A disclaimer - both of us are over 50 and reserve the right to forget things that have happened to us over 10 minutes ago.