Baby Wild Blonde Boy

"Hey Baby Wild Blonde Boy", I say to him and he says "What?" and I say, "I yove you." And he  answers "Yove you." All of a sudden one day he smiled real cute at me and said, "Baby Gamma HooHoo...I yove you." And he giggled, cause he knew he was making a joke. He thought of that all by myself. So smart!

One day I was holding him on my lap on the rocky chair...I started rocking and singing..."Yo Ho. Yo Ho a pirate's life for me."   He asked me to sing more (and if you heard me sing, you'd wonder why he said more.) and so we sang together and sailed over rough seas and a full moon with the wind in Pirate Wild Blonde Boy's curls. And the game of pirate was born...We use our foam swords and say "All sor one and one sor all." And he tells his sister, "Go way, I playing wiss gamma all mysels." He really likes the pirate game. (We do let sister join in, she loves to be the mermaid.)
One day he was looking for a dvd...I couldn't figure out which one he wanted. He proudly held up "Veggie Tales, The Pirates who don't do anything". "See, I tole you Gamma!" I love when we have our moments...they are few and and hard to come by, but I cherish them very much.
His affection is not easily won and I love when he gives me a WET kissie.
He is a big boy and can appear rough...however he is not and my favorite image of him is dragging his ragged, blue blankie behind him up the stairs. So sweet..........

Anywhere...

When this little man takes my hand, I can feel the tug all the way to my heart. When he says, "Framma, I missed you..." I melt into a puddle. He is my Ray and a very special boy.

When he takes my hand, I will go wherever he wants me to.

And we have the best time of make believe...

And I cherish our special time together.

Sairy (fairy) Garden

So our oldest granddaughter decided she would come and spend the night "all by myself, because I love you Grandma HooHoo". She was very excited and couldn't wait for her parents and brothers to leave.

We were going to make a sairy garden.  Neither one of us is Martha Stewart, meaning we both got dirty, our clothes, our arms and legs. We scooped new dirt into the pots and then she picked out what plants to put in which pots and stuck them in the holes. Then came the funnest part...decorating them. She used sparkly stones, eggs, bird nests, a sairy house, moss and whirly gigs. We think they are wonderful...one of them even has a solar light which will help the sairies sind their way home. What do you think?

Then she said, "Grandma, I'm tired of being dirty, can I take a bath?" Of course, my darling...and she had the best time and turned into a prune. Then we did her piggy toes and fingers in four different shades of pink and red.

After dinner and watching part of Heidi with Shirley Temple (which tickled me to no end), we tried to go nigh night. We did end up looking at the moon and "Grandma, look at the stars, I never see those at home".

In the morning, I actually made pancakes and sausages and she set the table so pretty and folded the napkins under the silverware. "Who taught you that?" "I saw it on Oso." Then she disappeared...and came back with some sparkly fabric for the table and Grandpa HooHoo graciously moved everything and helped her place the cloth.

She was very proud of herself and we thought it was lovely.

Then we took her home.

And...the house was very quiet without her...

Uh oh (in the words of our Ladybug)

How did you get up there Frampa and how in the world will you get down?

Frampa has an appointment to see Dr. John on Thursday for a cortisone shot for his injured shoulder.
Uh oh!

Guess who is crawling????

Happy Birthday to THE biggest baby we ever loved!!

10 lbs 15 oz...the biggest girl ever born in our hospital. The doctor had to hold you with two hands.
We found out 3 months later that your collar bone had been broken during delivery. Then we knew why you would cry everytime we put you down.  You didn't like to eat either and at 3 months old you were a skinny mini and for "some reason" the name screaming mimi was given to you.  You remind me a lot of our wild, blonde boy naughty and charming all at once. You have grown into a beautiful, warm- hearted woman and I can't believe that you were ours for a brief moment in time.  MOM

Birthdays are only dates that signify that another year of memories has gone by.  This birthday I remember a little girl who was barely tall enough to look in the top of her sisters dresser drawer and did...even though she was told not to touch her sisters things.  Her daddy spent about 15 minutes watching her pull things out, inspect them and carefully put them back.  This is the same little girl who grew up to be a mommy and stand in the doorway and watch her little boy go into his sister's dresser drawers and inspect things despite being told not to touch.  Birthdays bring back great memories.  I love you dolly.
Love Dad

Live in the moment