I haven’t seen GD in 5 weeks! Looking forward to spending Friday and Saturday taking care of her. S and DIL were ecstatic that I was available Friday: I think they have missed me giving them a break every other week or so.
DH and I went down to visit almost 5 MO GD last weekend. She is so cute! And is in a very fun stage right now. We went with them to see Santa. No fear of strangers (even big red ones) yet. She is pretty much bald, and we got quite a few comments about how cute “he” was. Lol. Same thing happened with my DD.
After posting about DIL being past due date, she went into labor last night. GS should be here shortly if S’ last group email was accurate. Keeping fingers crossed delivery goes smoothly.
GS was born this morning. Mom and baby are doing well. Can’t wait to hear how big sis, 2 yo GD, reacts to seeing her baby brother. We’re going up for a few days next week & can’t wait.
Congratulations @shellfell!!
Wonderful news @shellfell !
We love to go babysit granddaughter and give the kids a worry free break. Win win.
For anyone who has had trouble conceiving or whose kids are having trouble conceiving, this is one of the best, most heartwarming videos I’ve ever seen.
Congratulaltions, @shellfell - a baby boy to love! Enjoy every minute!
What a wonderful 3 days watching GD! Almost 14 months and I’m surprised at how much she understands and babbles. Some of her words are really close to the actual word! I do remember my kids being very curious, just like GD, but not talking nearly as much. She calls me ga-ma-ma, so sweet.
S and DIL were able to go out both nights and leave her with me. First night spontaneous, 2nd night scheduled for me to be there. Now S is trying to schedule a mini 3 day vacation with DIL, leaving her at our house. Probably February as availability for us and them is far out.
We had sweet grandson for a few hours yesterday. He’s 3 yrs 2 mos now and just FUN! Curious and bright and just plays so well all by himself.
Both kids were here for Thanksgiving with the their girls; my daughter’s 5 month old and my son’s 14.5 month old. The older one is a trip! When they were here in September she started walking, and this trip she perfected her vocabulary. All she wanted to do was throw tennis balls to the dog, who had no interest 
Every morning when she would wake up, she went looking for the dog and calling him; she even try to call him by name. She is so carefree like her parents. She has her regal wave down pat when going bye bye! Oh, and she uses the signed for “more” not just for food; whatever she wants she signs more and give you this sly grin. She knows exactly what she wants and will shake her head no if you hand her the wrong thing!
The 5 month old on the other hand is like her parents who are worriers and nervous. The baby had a virus the weekend before they arrived and just was not well. We talked my daughter into taking her to a pediatrician we knew on Friday as she has a fever Thursday night. She had a double ear infection which I gather flying didn’t help. Even with 3 days of antibiotics, she still is not feeding well and cries during feedings and doesn’t sleep. They are going back to their pediatrician this morning; I am hoping they can figure out what is going on as she is so unhappy, as are her parents. It was not a good trip for them.
Fun holiday with the 2 yo grandbaby who was remarkably well behaved at all the restaurants all weekend long (except one, when she was tired and hangry, and it happened to be the one day. SIL’s friend, who doesn’t like kids, joined us). We were at a resort, so had every meal out for 5 days. Fortunately the place was huge, with lots of opportunity, when we ate at the hotel, for her to run around and not disturb others. Such a fun time!
Enjoyed spending time last week with 2yo GD and 1week old GS. GD is quite verbal for her age (according to her day care teachers) and comes out with some really funny things. She’s having a bit of a hard time adjusting to new baby brother and does things just to get attention, wants a pacifier, asks for Mommy alot - all expected reactions. GS is adorable, but usually cried when I held him - they tended to give him to me right before feeding time.
Loved spending Thanksgiving weekend with all my kids, including 1 y/o GS. They all flew to my sister’s and we had a wonderful time. It was especially great to see him with his great grandmother and his two youngest cousins, who are in their teens. Those two (15 y/o girl and 17 y/o boy) were just unbelievably adorable vying for his attention.
6 month old GD was at our house all day on Thanksgiving. So sweet!!! She is doing the army crawl when she sees something she wants. She didn’t cry at all, except the hour her mommy and daddy left to visit my dad (who is in Memory Care). She would stop crying when we put on “Baby Shark” and my daughter danced.
Spent the afternoon babysitting our GS who is sick again. He seems pretty susceptible to stomach bugs, vomiting violently and frequently when they take up residence in his body. This time his stomach settled pretty quickly so S and DIL went to a movie. Such a cuddly, tired, sick little peanut. He is a little guy and every time this happens and he loses a little weight he seems even smaller. He ranges between the 5th and 15th percentile for weight and can ill afford to lose any. I know I went through this with all my own kids but why does it feels different to watch S and DIL deal with it. I mean it’s nothing serious, but he just seemed so pathetic this afternoon. After we left they texted to say he kept down some pedialyte and went right to sleep. Poor little guy.
Catching up on this thread, but fun times with the grand-kids for sure.
The weekend before Thanksgiving, 18 month old GD started running a few with congestion. Nurse DD kept up with MD office and kept fever down alternating Tylenol and Motrin. Tuesday at the MD office GD ran a 103 temp. Was put on antibiotics even though it was viral pneumonia. By Thanksgiving Day she was more herself. Glad she had the time at home to completely recover through the following weekend. Pointing to cousin’s dog and saying ‘dog’. Baby was her first word (baby brother born in July). Playing (and observing) cousin’s girls that are 4 and 7.
DD has been able to continue breastfeeding her son because she won a managerial nursing job M - F and has a private office, where she can pump breast milk. GS is super healthy - he had a cold for less than a week but ran no temperature. Happy and content, smiling all the time.
Looking forward to more time with them this weekend.
I get extra time with DD/GD/GS when SIL has Army Reserve weekend. I live just 100 miles away and have flexible work schedule.
DD has very few areas where she doesn’t agree with my comments or ways to handle things. She doesn’t think her DD is old enough for time out… that will happen pretty soon once she sees it is really needed as a parenting tool out of the toolbox.
Photo books are wonderful - I put one together from a one week ‘family vacation gathering’ - “Celebrating Family 2012” - niece hired a photographer that allowed us to copy/have the large group photo, and he allowed us to take snapshots of the family groupings. We all bought a bit from the photographer. Each family ‘group’ wore a solid colored shirt (H is one of 4 sons, and very close cousin was also part of the family) - and between the casual snaps and others and vacation activities, I had a very good book. We wore khaki shorts/slacks, and our family group was navy. One was yellow, light blue, purple. I bought copies for everyone – a very big hit.
DDs made a Shutterfly book up for H “To our loving father father’s day 2012” and in 2016 made one up for me “For Our Mother Whom We Love”. The DDs graduated HS in 2012 and 2014, so they had ‘time’ and not ‘money’. They spent the time going through our boxes of photos. I helped them with the Shutterfly costs for H’s book. By the time they were older for my book, they swung the cost.
DDs both had great summer travel in 2014, and made up a book for us (and for them) which was wonderful. DD2 was in Alaska, while DD1 was in Switzerland and Italy.
We still haven’t done anything with DD/SIL’s wedding (2017)- they have all the photographer’s pictures digital as do I; nor anything put together on the grandchildren (born 2018 and 2019) - they did have cute baby announcements with photos, and a nice family picture for this Christmas. So much available and so much digital. I don’t have the digital organized well either - that takes time and some talent too.
New territory for us! We received the wonderful news as a Christmas gift, though very early on, so we’re “sworn to secrecy”.
I’m struggling a bit with it, only because they live over 1000 miles away. DIL’s parents bought a house that S1 and DIL are currently living in and they will be moving there permanently over the summer. Her brother also lives close by. They all relocated to this area. We will not be moving to where they are, so we won’t see the baby nearly as much as we’d like.
I’m also going to be a young grandparent. S1 is my husband’s son from a previous relationship, but we raised him. I’m not even 50 yet (will be when the baby’s born!), so our life is definitely not “ready for retirement” (or anywhere close at this point) where we can get up and go at our leisure. DIL’s parents just retired. Given our vacation time is limited, and S2 is in college right now, we certainly don’t have the time or resources at this point to be the ever present grandparents we’d like because of work obligations and life is still very active with S2.
Any advice from anyone in a similar situation where one set of grandparents live closer than the others? Thanks!!!