Life or Something Like It

Grandparenthood – The Greatest Role

Grandparenthood – The Greatest Role

Grandparenthood - The Greatest Role

Grandparenthood – The Greatest Role that I have ever been in to date. Oh my goodness. Can you even handle the cuteness of that picture??!! My grandchildren are phenomenal human beings and if I am blessed with more, that would be amazing. If I simply get to be the best Yayi ever to these 2 cuties…I am just as happy!

My kids have made a giant sacrifice to come hang out and have dinner every Friday night. I love it. Honestly, I know that it is hard and probably inconvenient for them but it fills my cup so much. I love having my children all around my table. The loud conversations, babies into everything, food cooking, kids eating out of the pans, everything to me is wonderful.

Silence

Since so many of my kids have moved out, my house is so quiet. I has been hard to transition from cooking for 14 people on any given night, to cooking for 4 and I am not a fan. The chaos is comforting to me, so when my kids come to my house, it is just bliss. I look forward to my Friday nights every week!

Lately, I have been picking a kid and I cook what they want for that evening. I started at the end of July with my 5th child. This seems to make my kids feel like they have a say and we are guaranteed they will like what I fix. Now, I have some “extra” kids that I may have to make something a little different for them, but I don’t even care. I will do what you want if you just come and hang out!

Grandparenthood

Frankly, I was prepared. I was thrilled when my oldest daughter got pregnant but my mind went to “I will never be like my Granny or my mom for that matter.” In my eye, grandmothers have short hair, gray, and wear bifocals and floral prints. I had pink/purple hair that was long and I don’t own florals. However, I do have bifocals. Seriously, I thought those were prerequisites and that I was ill-equipped.

There is nothing quite like the feeling of walking into a room and a child burst into a smile and scrambling to get closer to you. I bring them joy simply by doing that. They want nothing from me but to walk into a room. That fills my heart to a capacity that I didn’t even know existed. I feel like when the Grinch goes from this stone heart to it exploding.

Pure joy.

My Grandchildren

Then Charleigh as born. Oh. My. Word. First, watching my daughter evolve into the best mommy ever was amazing. Holy Cow. Then, they placed this perfection in my arms and I was done. Simply stick a fork in me, I am done. She was so tiny and beautiful with these giant eyes! We prayed for her to get her daddy’s big eyes and cow eyelashes and she did. However, she looks so much like Bug…my heart. I took care of her while they worked and it was glorious.

Next up, Apollo. Stop it right now. That child. His birth was a bit more traumatic then Charleigh’s and he was tinier than she was but good grief. That boy. I watched my second daughter sacrifice her life to bring this boy into the world a bit early. This was during covid and I could only stay for so long, in the hospital caring for my baby child. Whereas when Bug had Charleigh, I was blessed with night shift while she was there. Again, watching my second daughter rock this whole motherhood thing makes me think I did something right when I raised her!

Blessing Upon Blessing

I would love to show their faces. They, to me, look like a healthy dose of my daughters with a splash of their daddies! I love it and their unique qualities. Charleigh is content bringing all her toys and putting them in your lap or sitting and reading a book with you. Apollo never stops moving and prefers to go go go instead of being held. They love opera and the rat pack. Both the kids love to be read to and sung to with hand motions, of course. If a song doesn’t have hand motions, we invent them.

I would love as many grandchildren that my children want to have because they are what this world needs more of. However, I respect my children, their desires, their bodies, and their choices and if 2 is all I will ever have, then I am totally good with that. These two grandchildren….geez….if you could only see/hear them.

Our names were supposed to be Lolli and Pop. Charleigh started calling us Yayi and Poop. Now, it is mainly Yayi, mom mom, Llllllllllooollllllliiiii, and a consistent Pop. Apollo can say Pop but not Yayi (or Lolli) but we are working on it. He just meets us with this grin that is the best thing ever.

Sigh…….I love them and I love this role!

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Fun Facts About My Grandson

Fun Facts About My Grandson

Fun Facts About My Grandson
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

This post, Fun Facts About My Grandson, is written by my daughter. Clearly, I have permission to post it but will not post his photo. Seriously though, I could eat him and my granddaughter all the way up! I love them completely!

Here are some fun facts about my almost 10 month old baby boy!

  • He is a quarter Romani Gypsy thanks to his dad’s side of the family
  • He has strawberry blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes just like his mama
  • He is very stout and dense around his midsection and he has rolls upon rolls on his thighs
  • He has the cutest chubby cheeks!
  • He was born premature at 34 weeks and 1 day via emergency c-section due to eclampsia problems.
  • He was in the NICU for 1 month before coming home
  • He did start out as a breastfed baby but is now solely on formula (a fed baby is the best way to make sure they are happy!)
  • He is a weird little kid sometimes lol (his dad and I are very weird people)
  • He loves to grind his teeth and it drives me absolutely crazy
  • He has a fascination for wipes (loves to put them in his mouth)
  • He gets scared easily by loud noises and then he will cry
  • He is very very LOUD! He has a good set of lungs on him
  • He can clap his hands, sit up by himself, feed himself, say mama/baba/naenae, he likes to help take his clothes off, and he can sort of crawl now
  • He loves his mama and daddy very much but he also really loves his grandparents. He is shy around strangers at first but will warm up to you quickly
  • He has an amazing smile that will light up your whole day
  • This kiddo LOVES him so food. If he sees us eating and we don’t give him a bite or a drink he will cry like a banshee
  • He loves to laugh
  • He has 3 bottom teeth and 2 top teeth
  • He has some rank smelling poops sometimes and it is not a pleasant experience for both parties
  • He loves contact naps
  • He loves car rides
  • He growls at people and it freaks them out sometimes (this one is totally my fault)
  • He hums himself to sleep
  • Has been an amazing sleeper ever since he was born
  • He hates being hot and we have to keep our house at a cool 65 degrees or under or he will scream until he wears himself out
  • He loves his teddies and stuffed animals
  • If you take his bottle out of his mouth for even a minute before the entire bottle is finished he will… you guessed it.. Scream lol (#word)
  • He loves bath time and splashing around!

Love of Her Life

He is the love of my life and the most precious soul I have ever had the pleasure of knowing! I am so grateful and blessed that God chose me to be his mother. He came in my life when I needed him most and I would go through that c-section 100 times over just to have him in my life.

Everyday he is learning new things and we discover new things about his little personality. This baby is so incredibly sweet and a busy little dude. He always has places to go and people to see 24/7 and people who love him with a deep affection. He has been prayed over by many people during and after his birth.  I know when he is older, he will have people in his life that will always be on his side. I can not wait to see what other changes come around as we enter into toddlerhood with my sweet baby!