We headed up to my mom's parents first (the Swedish ones, for those who keep track that way) and JP got this picture of my grandpa meeting his new great-granddaughter for the first time.
I truly could not love that picture more. My grandpa has struggled so much with his back these last few years (chronic injuries caused by his ejection from his fighter jet when he was shot down in the Vietnam War) and I know it's been so hard to have daily pain amid the realization that it might never go away even after so many surgeries, but he was just SO HAPPY- overjoyed is probably a better word- to see us and to meet little Cora that I keep crying when I look at the pictures.
My grandma is doing great. She's been alcohol-free for more than 3.5 years now and has truly seemed to age backward since she quit. I know she worries about my grandpa, it would be so hard to see the person you love in pain, but she too was just overjoyed to meet and "get her hands on" her third great-grandbaby.
We hung out for a bit in their apartment, catching up on the rest of the family and answering all their questions about the minute details of our lives. My grandpa loves hearing my work stories and they wanted to know everything about JP's business and the kids' school and whether Cora is really always as happy as she was the whole time we were in their apartment (yes, she is). Landon wanted to read my grandpa a book, which I loved spying on through the patio glass door, remembering when I sat next to him after one of his surgeries (shoulder replacement maybe?) when I was in 5th or 6th grade and I read and talked to him by the hour.
Landon then asked to see my grandpa's medals and model airplanes and JP, Landon, and a very happy Grandpa Glenn headed to the study to immerse themselves in Air Force stories and memorabilia.
The girls stayed in the living room and my former-Kindergarten-teacher grandma sang Claire the story of The Three Bears about 16 times.
My grandma raised 4 kids, often on her own while my grandpa was away on tours, so I love this picture of her surrounded by my 3 little ones. The optimism and happiness that I feel I got from my mom began with her- everything will work out, my grandma always says, and everything always does, especially when you doggedly refuse to let anything else get you down along the way. My grandpa hung a "You Are My Sunshine" plaque for here over their bed, and that's exactly right.
They are so special to me- all four of my grandparents. The one thing I truly regret in leaving Austin- more than the hills and hiking and fabulous restaurants- is being 3 hours further away from them and not being able to visit as often as we used to. I'm so lucky to have all of my grandparents alive and healthy and living in the same community, I wish I could take advantage of it more.
Next on our tour, we headed down 6 floors to my dad's parent's apartment. As always they were snappily dressed and ready for a cocktail and conversation. Also as always, they had "a few things for the kids" wrapped in bags that the kiddos were very excited to open. They met Cora while Landon and Claire tried in vain to love on their cat and then Landon got to show them some of his work from school.
We gathered for a group photo, Landon inexplicably clutching my grandfather's shoe horn and Claire holding a cat toy and then we headed down for a group dinner in the downstairs bistro.
We enjoyed a tasty and early dinner, catching up more as we ate and then gathered the greats and great-grands for one final picture (poor Cora was finally getting her dinner and it was interrupted for the shot, the girl can only be pushed so far) before piling back in the car and driving the four hours back to Fort Worth.
We pulled up at 10, tucked our tired kids in their beds, and uploaded the pictures that made me smile as I got ready for my own bed later. I thanked JP for driving the 9+ hours in heavy wind, rain, and occasional traffic- he loves my family, but he signs on for trips like that without complaint because what matters to me matters to him, period. And seeing them, and introducing them to Cora, mattered an awful lot.
Fascinating that both sets of grandparents live in the same building. You are (and your kids are) so lucky to have such loving people!
ReplyDeleteWe are! Particularly since JP's side of the family isn't a part of our lives. And the retirement community is for retired military officers, which both my grandpas are, so we were always on track for the lovely convenience it provides us :).
DeleteDo your grandparents "hang out" together? Just curious...
ReplyDeleteAnon - JLV
On occasion, they're certainly friendly with each other, but they have lots of different friends and activities too.
DeleteOptimism is an amazing trait and awesome that you inherited it. And statistically pretty amazing you have all four grandparents! my kids don't even have that now. :(
ReplyDeleteDo you guys ever hear from JP's parents or grandparents or anyone? I find it fascinating that you could have kids out there, living their own lives and not knowing anything about them - by choice.
ReplyDeleteCute pictures, as always. I'm glad your grandparents are doing well.
We don't. His mom was also an only child and his dad wasn't very close to his family (JP doesn't know his aunts and uncles on that side), so his entire family is basically his parents and grandma and we haven't seen them since before Claire was born. I send them a Christmas card each year, so they know we've had another baby, and he spoke to them briefly at Christmas this year, but they haven't contacted us other than that.
DeleteHi LL! Glad it was a wondeful trip. I love how happy the (great!)-grandparents all look!
ReplyDeleteSlightly off-topic, but I've been wondering if you might share a bit about your and JP's approach to sleep for the kiddos. You mentioned in a recent post how you put Cora down, patted her on the back, and left her happily asleep. Maybe not a nightly occurence (?), but it would be so useful to know how you do so well with three little ones. I have just one now, another on the way, and I'm evaluating where we are and if/how we might change things WRT sleep routines, etc.
Specifically, what do you do? And Has your approach differed significantly from one child to the next (I've read since Landon was a colicky infant; so other than that I mean!)...
Thanks so much if you're willing to post on this. However, I also know that this topic can be prickly, and can bring up some vitriol between otherwise reasonably people, so I also understand if you don't want to go there. :) My best, MJS
Hi MJS! I'd be happy to write about sleep! I'll start it here and see if we need to go into more detail in a most. What you wrote is exactly our nighttime routine with Cora, every night- lay her in bed, maybe a pat on the back, turn on white noise machine, turn off light, close door. Sometimes she'll squawk for a minute, most times she's just quiet till she falls asleep a few minutes later. Claire was a great sleeper, but I feel like we had to do more to get her down (our own fault for starting it in the first place)- rocking and singing and swaying, then some pats, then slowly leaving the room. Cora, largely by necessity, is extremely low maintenance :).
DeleteThe biggest thing we did with Cora was start young. We have a fabulous pediatrician who at 1 month said, she needs to be going to sleep on her own, in her own room, starting now. No monitor, if she needs you, you'll hear her. Lay her down, leave the room. So starting at 4 weeks she's been putting herself to sleep and now it's just no problem. As for going through the night- at 4 weeks our dr told us to wait 5 minutes before going to get her at night if she cried. That eliminated 1 feeding right away. At 2 months it was wait 15 minutes. At 4 months, if you were still getting up, then give her water if she wakes in the 10 hours she's supposed to be sleeping. (And at that age, our dr. said 10 hours is the goal, so if she's down at 7 and up at 5, that's a legit morning time!). It has worked perfectly for us. It's not even an issue. With Landon EVERYTHING was an issue, so I don't really have any comments there, and with Claire, I wish we had started younger with the going to sleep part of the routine, though we were good about the staying asleep part.
All in all, I do genuinely believe that even if you have a few difficult nights along the way, the training is more than worth for you, your spouse, AND the baby. Sleep is good and an important life-long skill. As a chronic insomniac, I wish my body had figured out sleep at an early age! And by starting young like we did with Cora, it was a very natural progression- no sudden change between being cuddled to sleep and then suddenly abandoned in the crib. She just knows her crib is her sleep place and she seems to be very happy in there. Let me know if you have more questions- wasn't sure how detailed to get :). Good luck to you!