Life Is Beautiful

One item of business before we press on...there will not be a Hodgepodge this week. We spent last week with our newest grandson and arrived back home Friday. On Saturday Daughter1 and her boys came out to the lake to spend a few days so whew! The Hodgepodge will have to wait another week. See you back for that on July 6th. 

Now where was I? I think I was saying life is beautiful and there is absolutely nothing in the world to remind you that's true more so than a newborn babe. 

Daughter2 texted us at 5 AM the morning of our anniversary and said to come on over. We had packed our bags the Friday before because we also thought that was gonna be the day, but false alarm. We loaded up the pup and made our way to hubs brother's house to drop our dog at 'camp'. He loves my sister-in-law especially and they had offered to keep Hunley while we were meeting the new little man.

Daughter2 and her hubs have a little dog and we didn't want to add anything else that needed caring for into the mix of a newborn, new parents, and a small dog about to lose rank in the hierarchy of home. We are so grateful we had somewhere our own dog could stay and play so we could focus our attention on the new baby (and his dog lol). Hubs was determined to teach him some circus tricks before his parents got home.

We got to Daughter2's house mid-afternoon then waited and waited and jumped every time the phone dinged and then we finally went to a local restaurant to celebrate 38 years of married life. Mostly though we were fidgety and just so ready to get the call. 

Which we did. Finally! 

Welcome to the world beautiful boy! Born with a full head of hair and cheeks that go for days-

Also, I have tiny daughters who somehow birth big babies. They are completely awesome. 

The dads are pretty great too. Just sayin'-

The new parents made their way home from the hospital the following day and then we basically spent the next week letting this tiny human steal our hearts. 

If you have grandchildren then you know you can indeed spend an entire day just sitting watching them. Many days actually. 

The in-laws arrived on Wednesday so we overlapped by a couple of days which was double the fun. They joined hubs and I in the watching and the marveling and the talk of how perfectly perfect he truly is. 

This world gets messier by the minute, but I hold a newborn baby in my arms and all the noise and turmoil just fades right away. I feel tiny fingers wrap around my own...

And I sit in quiet awe of a God whose design for birth is nothing short of a full blown miracle.

Love In The Time Of Technology

Hmmm..seems I've missed a day or five in the 10- day writing challenge, but 50% is better than none at all don't you think? My plan is to continue knocking out the prompts I missed because it feels really good to be writing again. Today is technically Day 10 of the challenge, but I'm backing up to when things went off course which was Day 6.

The word prompt-send

Ever since I read the word I've been humming that song Send In the Clowns, which for some reason leads me to thinking about politics and how crazy our world is most days. For the record that song has nothing to do with politics, it was written for 'A Little Night Music', but in my mind I think politics.

Relax. I don't blog about politics.

Let's talk grandchildren instead and how we survive ridiculous geography through the miracle of FaceTime. Maybe that sounds a teensy bit dramatic, but honestly there are days when it feels true.

My daughter usually calls as they're beginning tomorrow and we're winding down today. The mancub is often still in his pj's finishing his waffle when technology brings the phone screen magically to life. His eyes light up as our faces appear and he breaks into a smile that sends me to the moon.

We talk about this and that and he might pull out a book or do some Thomas the Tank Engine track repair. He asks his mama for things and she tells him to wait because we're talking and then she says ever so gently, 'remember we need patience'.

Indeed.

Sometimes the mancub wants to tell us what a T-Rex says or how the little boy upstairs came to play and shared his trucks or how he saw an Apache helicopter out the window yesterday. My daughter aims the camera at baby brother who is perfectly precious and I'm sure wonders about the people always shouting HI!! and WE LOVE YOU!! from that thing in mama's hand.

We sigh a little at all we miss and also all we have.

When it's time to hang up I blow a kiss to both the boys. From 7,130 miles away the mancub sends one back. I reach out my hand to catch it as it flies.

Love in the age of technology makes kisses sent around the world feel real enough to touch.

Check Check...Is This Thing On?

Let's just dive in and not mention its been a month since I cracked open my little corner of the Internet.

Hubs and I just got back from dropping Daughter1 and our grandson at the Atlanta airport for their flight back to Washington. What a full, busy, beautiful week+ it has been.

And by beautiful I mean there was much love and celebration. The weather eh. Not so very beautiful, more Washington-like. Which is unfortunate when you've traveled from actual Washington to normally sunny South Carolina hoping to escape the rain, but we made the best of it.

And baby boy just rolled with everything.
All of it.

Wearing a life jacket over an actual jacket-

People coming and going, the extended family whose voices rise several octaves at the sight of him, the picture taking, the sleeping in a portable crib at his other grandparents house for a few days, transitioning to our house and a different portable crib set up in the office because we had a full house and then some.

The dark rainy days indoors and the trip to Hobby Lobby and the happy noise and chaos that always occurs when our families come to town.

Yes there is wrapping paper on the sideboard and a plastic sheet under the high chair and his other grandmother might have a Clemson orange football in her lap for safekeeping, but we cannot be bothered with picture perfect pictures. Ain't nobody got time for that when there's a toddler at the table.

A toddler who wakes up happy and goes to bed happy and gives you the biggest bestest smiles all the day long.

There were approximately two pockets of sunshine while he was at the lake and we fully embraced those minutes.

That little chair he's sitting in has seen some miles y'all.  His mama and his aunt both did a lot of driveway sitting in that very same chair back in the day.

Mister was all in on the slide. There might have been mud puddles at the bottom but we made sure he didn't land in one.

He loved being near the water, walking out on the dock, fish spotting, and of course bird feeding with his pawpaw.

Anything with his pawpaw really.

Our little mancub is the busiest boy I know but we are mad about his every word, giggle, and antic. He is still rockin' the 90's boy band hair he was pretty much born with and we absolutely love it. His pawpaw trimmed his bangs sorta kinda one evening but it was like trying to hit a moving target so we decided it would be best safer if his mama let a barber handle that job once they're back home.

If you're looking for a great gift for a 19-month old non-breakable appetizer plates are always a good idea. If you can manage a stack of five the sound they make when dropped on a wood floor is completely on point.

While we loved all the time we had with our number one boy, Daughter1 and the mancub didn't really come all this way just to soak up the sun (good thing!) or twirl plates. They made the trek south so Daughter1 could host a bridal shower for her sister aka baby boy's aunt aka the bride.

And because I'm determined not to jam an entire month's worth of happenings into a single post I think I'll save all that for next time.

Words.
I still have plenty.