CORRALING THE GRANDS

Trying to get all 3 of my boys to sit and pose for a picture was hard

Xmas Eve night.

They were so wound up as you can see.

Then they were ready to bolt after the first try.

Ok,

so everyone look at me and smile nice like Syd,

please...

Pop Pop, you look really done with this exercise.

But,

we are getting close here.

Let's decorate Pop Pop some more.

Gee,

this is the closest we got.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday.

We did both the lighting of the Hanukah candles

 and the singing of Christmas songs.

Plus the unwrapping of a couple of excellent  presents.

Merry Christmas All

And Happy Hanukah!

BIG LOVE

Grandparenthood is new and wonderful for my hubby and I.

Even though he has two other grandchildren (from his son),

we weren't able to be around them in their early years,

so this is a whole new ballgame for the both of us.

And man oh man,

are we IN LOVE.

We try to babysit as often as we can now that they have moved closer to us.

At 19 months Syd is absolutely fascinated by cars, trucks, motorcycles & planes.

And he especially loves Pop Pop's Mustang.

I'm thinking we will probably give it to Syd when he gets his driver's license.

He already knows what all the buttons do,

and if we let him,

 could spend hours sitting, 

standing,

clapping & laughing with such joy,

that Jim & I are laughing our heads off.

He is so entertaining,

so easy to love.

Now that I look back,

I rarely got to spend this kind of fun, quality time with my own children 

which makes me so very sad.

No wonder everyone says how great being a grandparent is.

Nighttime is a ritual that Syd looks forward to.

Drinking his milk,

(having graduated to a sippy cup)

getting his bath (although he doesn't like getting his head wet),

then running thru the house naked so we chase him and play hide & seek.

Squeals of joy with lots of teasing & tickling

Oh such fun!

Then the most important part of the ritual,

picking just the right book.

He makes sure he has his "Dog" in tow,

and walks over to his bookshelf,

scans it carefully,

then finally chooses just the perfect book.

He chose his Pop Pop to read to him first.

He is so focused,

so fascinated,

so mature.

I'm sure he will be an early reader.

A reader for life like both his mom & dad.

And then the best part,

he chose a second book for me to read to him.

There is nothing better then the smell of baby,

all fresh & clean from the bath.

He has learned how to kiss,

so he gave both Pop Pop & I a very serious, 

thoughtful good-nite kiss,

with a funny little look of surprise on his face.

This kid has a million expressive looks.

Then up I lifted him to his cozy crib with all his blankie,

poopie (pillow)

& other favorite stuffed toys.

He sighs, 

smiles,

 and snuggles into his favorite blanket that his Aunt Carrie crocheted for him before he was born.

Then I turn out the lights,

tiptoe thru the door pulling it shut a bit behind me

and listen closely as he makes baby talk to his critters,

finally closing his eyes and falling asleep.

Just like that!!

No muss, no fuss.

This is the perfect baby,

and mommy & daddy have done one hell of a job getting him into this bedtime routine.

Bravo you two!

Because I remember many a night crawling out of my son's bedroom on my hands and knees

 so he couldn't see me or hear me.

And then my knee would crack 

and up would pop Zach's head and the soothing would have to begin anew.

LOL,

great memories to last a lifetime and chuckle over.

PURE JOY

Time is flying by and Syd is getting so big so fast.

Since I've been on summer break we've been able to spend more time with him.

Funny,

I never had time to enjoy my own children the way we do with Syd.

I guess that's the way though when you are a working mommy.

But man oh man are we having fun with the Sydmyster.

SYDNEY SIGHTING

Our little guy is 16 months old,

and one of his first words was Pop pop.

He just loves his grandpa to pieces,

and since his mom and dad have moved 20 minutes away from us,

we are able to stop by and babysit anytime we want.

Bedtime is quite the ritual.

He loves books,

his mom and dad have read to him every night since he's been born

(even before he was born).

He listens to music from many different cultures,

his parents put on instrumental soothing CDs from lots of different countries after reading time

while he drinks his milk.

And then he clutches his favorite stuffed doggy

and lays down and goes right to sleep.

Neither of my children were ever that easy.

Ever.

Makes babysitting at night a piece of cake!