Tag Archive for: Great Grandkids

I’m Just Glad to Still be Here, Doing What I Love

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Being the old-lady of the group, I’ve done a lot in my lifetime to be able to keep on writing.

I’ve never been able to sit for long period of time at the computer–when I was writing and running a care home for developmentally disabled women, even when the gals were at work, I still had to do the laundry every day and various other chores. And though it was also my only writing time, I was up and down all the time.

In a way, this was a blessing, because I’ve always been able to go right back to whatever I was working on before the last interruption.

I have a huge family and they drop in unexpectedly and I’m always glad to see them. I love writing, but I love my family more.

Now, there’s been even a bigger change. My granddaughter, hubby, and two little girls are buying our house and we will be staying here with them. So I have precious interruptions: a nearly four-year-old who always asks what I’m doing, and a nearly two-year-old who always comes for her morning hug.

I am at the beginning of a new book and I’m loving the writing–but also feeling blessed to have so much family around.

Proud Great Grandmother, Marilyn

The Blessing and the Scary Part of Having a Big Family

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We have been blessed by four new great-grandchildren in the last four years.

Jaslyn who is now 4 (she’s named after her daddy, Jason)

Justice, Jaslyn’s baby brother

These two charmers belong to granddaughter, Merenda, and I don’t get to see them often enough.

Aleena was just born a week and a half ago, nearly 9 pounds. All went well, until she came home from the hospital. She spiked a fever and had to be rushed back to the hospital. She was dehydrated, not getting enough milk. She, mama and daddy spent two days and two nights while the doctor’s ran all sorts of tests.
Granddaughter, Jessica, lives all the way in North Carolina. I can tell you we all did lots of praying.

This picture was taken when she got back home. She looks as happy as I’m sure her mommy and daddy were.

The next week, great grandson, Julius (I year) had to have an operation to take a cyst off his forehead.

Julius before his surgery

In the recovery room

When he woke up all he wanted was his daddy and his bottle.

His daddy, Nick, is the grandson we raised from age 11 to 22.

Julius is doing fine now. But again, it was a lot of trauma for a one week period. We get to see Julius a lot, and he’s a tough little guy.

All together we have 13 great-grandchildren. The eldest is 19. Lots of blessing.

Marilyn

Raising a New Baby

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The newest baby in our family is Julius. His daddy, my grandson, Nick, named him after a character in a football movie. Nick lived with us from the time he was 11 until he turned 22. When he was in high school and playing football, he was crazy about this movie and played it over and over. The main character was named Julius.

In this particular photo, Julius is out to breakfast with his Grandpa Matthew–our youngest, and it does look as though he’s choosing what he wants to eat from the menu. Since he’s only 6 months old, I doubt that’s what’s happening.

Back when I had my first child at 19 I really had no idea how to take care of a baby. Oh, I’d babysat a lot but that didn’t mean anything. I followed whatever instructions the moms gave me.

My baby was born 3000 miles away from where my family lived so I didn’t have any of them to rely on. What I did have was a Better Homes and Gardens Baby book and believe me, I did everything that it told me to do. One of the instructions was to feed the baby every four hours.

I was a nursing mother and I followed the 4 hour rule until I finally couldn’t stand the fact that the last hour my baby cried and cried. In tears myself, I called the doctor and told him my problem. He gave me a two word answer, “Feed her.”

After that, within a reasonable amount of time, if the baby was dry and she began to cry, I fed her. Worked very well. Yes, I did still follow “the book” about a lot of other things and most of the time the baby and I benefited.

I didn’t rely on “the book” for the next four babies–in fact I felt like an expert. Looking back though, I was way too busy to really enjoy those babies. Remember, there was no such thing as disposable diapers back in my day. Diapers had to laundered and hung up to dry. I washed clothes every day, usually four lines full. You have no idea how long all that took.

I didn’t even have a dryer until my fifth child was born and my grandfather took pity on me and and gave me a dryer. I never hung up another piece of clothing on an outside line after that.

When I quit nursing I sterilized bottle and mixed formula. (No dishwashers or microwaves back then.) That took a lot of time too.

With my first baby I had no car. There weren’t any snazzy strollers. I had a cumbersome baby carriage that I had to haul up and downstairs. I pushed it all over town with the baby in it–and whatever I purchased. I went to church that way too.

I hope the young mothers I know are taking the time to enjoy their babies–they should, they have more time to do it.

As a great-grandma, I no longer babysit the little ones. I do have one granddaughter who is now nine who once in a blue moon will come here after school if her mom is working. She’s a delight, reminds me of me at that age–very bossy and has a big imagination. She also likes to write. And, she can use the computer like a whiz.

 I’m enjoying hearing all about Susan and her “pea pod” now identified as Emily. I know Susan will take the time to enjoy this little one when she becomes a part of the family.

It’s fun to write and think about something about the promotion of my next book which is what I should be doing instead of writing this blog post.

Marilyn

Great Grandkids and Sports

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This past weekend, my daughter and hubby drove their motor home from California with their two of their granddaughters to a big track meet in Arizona.

Years ago, both their son and daughter participated in both the shot put and discus events in high school track.

Now their son’s daughters who are both in middle school are doing great in these two events.

The younger one with the darker hair made first place in discus. The older one came in fifth but there were 43 others competing. So I’d say that was pretty good.

Grandpa (my son-in-law) has been coaching these two whenever he has been around to do so.

Needless to say, my daughter and son and law are pleased as can be.

Great-grandma and pa are pretty proud too. We don’t get to see these kids as much as we’d like to as they live rather far away. Even though we’re all in California, it’s a long drive. Thank goodness for the Internet and the ability to send messages and photos.

Okay, I won’t brag about great-grandkids anymore–at least not for awhile.

Marilyn
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