How things change

Nothing ever stays the same. I do believe that everything is either growing or dying (or is it dieing?). Over time, my body has grown. Some people are mere shadows of their former selves, sadly due to age, disease, or diet. My former self is a mere shadow of me. (See http://www.anzwers.org/free/navyscpo8/ctrschool10AR5.html ) My wife and I see things like wedding photos of our current friends and blurt out "What the H$^% happens to people?" or as a Waylon Jennings song says = "If I'd known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself". However, another Waylon song says "I may be used, but baby I ain't used up". Thank God for every day He gives me.

Now to the point - both my children have blogs. They are wonderful blogs. They are wonderful children. Actually they are 30+ adults, but they will always be my "babies". It used to fry me when my mother said that about me.

They actually talk to each other. They call on the phone. They visit when my daughter is in town (less than 4 months and counting). They refer to each other's blogs. What a change. For most of their growing up years their conversations consisted of "Tell (the other one) to quit touching me". or "(The other one) is on my side of the seat".

We talked as a family. We made it a point to eat dinner together when I was in town. We found out years later that some survey showed that successful kids came from families that ate dinner together. Much of our conversation was the telling of jokes and being rowdy in fashions that defy ettiquette, but we ate together. Mostly Scott ate meat and mashed potatoes - I don't really remember what Anslie ate, but I remember her gagging because I tried to make her eat a (yes, one) bean. Maybe that is why she hates Wal-Mart - because there is a stream of consciousness going from the check out line to that bean.

I have become my uncles. Most of the boys are not babies anymore. (Mamas don't let your cowboys grow up be babies).

Anything that is not growing is dying. I am blessed to be able to say that my family is both growing and growing up.

The boys are coming! The boys are coming?

Four of the boys are coming to visit this weekend. We await this with great anticipation. We have mentally boarded up the windows and tied down all loose articles.

Physically, we have stepped up our daily conditioning and are trying to get some extra rest. Last night, I went to the grocery store to make sure we have appropriate food for grandsons. As I went down the list, I noticed green beans...they were between corn dogs and pudding. Two things were wrong with this.... the word "green" and the word "beans". I don't know what it is about green food that puts little people off.

Its not easy being green.....the assumption is that you are related to kermit.....and you don't want to eat frog kin. Also, most people - northerners, tree huggers, health nuts, etc. under cook green food. If it snaps in your mouth, it ain't done.

It is difficult getting little boys to eat beans. I have come up with another approach I may try this weekend. Beans cause methane. I am sure that fact can be translated in such a way that even a four year old would want to ingest beans.

Back to my grocery trip - did you know that corn dogs are in the same freezer case with sea food. No, not pizza, hot pockets, taquitas, or chicken parts, but sea food. I am not sure who decided that breaded hot dogs on a stick should go with sea food, but they were at least creative.

Now, I am slightly overweight my self - when I have a stomach ache, I hurt all over. So, I am always a little self conscious when I get to the check out and wonder if the clerk is noticing what I am buying. I did resist the urge to blurt out - "its not for me, I am buying it for a friend" - but I figured she had heard that before. That's why self checkout is so wonderful - you don't have to mentally explain what you bought, and you can get your senior citizen discount (which by the way the clerk did not give me)

I did buy applesauce (light green), the corn dogs and pudding. I also got cookie dough (so we could make them together), and a few other things.

Life is good when you aren't responsible to the long term care and feeding of little ones.

As usual, I am already looking forward to the things that they will say and do that my wife and I will laugh about for days. One never knows what they will say and do - but you can bet that each and everyone of them will create a memory that will last days, weeks, and months beyond this weekend.

And just five months from now, we can begin to have these moments with A.

Ain't life good.

Noisy toys - another perspective

There is a great blog about noisy toys at 4boydad.blogspot.com. It is great for several reasons. First it is well-written and worth reading, I don't care who you are. Secondly it is about some of my grandchildren. (The reason grandchildren and grandparents get along so well is that they have a common enemy). Thirdly, but not leastly, it is written by my son.

The whole time my son and daughter were growing up, I kept telling them "some day you will have children of your own and I will be able to get my revenge."

Time out for an unsolicited testimonial - Vtech makes great toys. They can package noise making mechanisms in the greatest variety of containers I have ever seen.

Back to our regular programming -

This revenge comes through being able to tell your grandchildren - "don't worry about that wet towel, someone will pick it up later."

Another favorite line is "...just leave those toys on the floor, someone will get them later."

I also like "if you are still hungry after not eating your vegetables, we have some new cookies".

And yes, we do have the Elmo guitar - in fact S2 and I were playing with it just last weekend.

J was playing with Legos - they are still on the floor of the playroom, while T and S1 were using unnecessarily large amounts of paper and printer ink.

We also have several other noisy toys that I play with when the little ones (S2 and A ((more about him in other blogs))come to visit) - sorry about the parenthesis thing - I used to be a programmer.
Sometimes I even play with them when there are no children here.

Just lately my son and his lovely wife sent more toys to us - a "sack-race Grover and Cookie Monster". They not only make noise - they hop - they talk while they hop - they make other noises while they talk while they hop. Not only that - but they need adult interference to make them work for a one-year-old. I knew how to do that because I had been playing with them in anticipation of someone visiting who would want my assistance.

Strangely enough - my daughter has started sending things home to store in the attic. This is great because they will be moving soon and we are glad to help. It has just dawned on me that most of the things she sends home make noise. That's ok - because soon they will live close and we can take our stash to their house when we go visit. We may forget to bring a few of them home.

All-in-all, I enjoyed and continue to enjoy our children. God gave us good children. But, I do have to tell you that being able to interact with our small ones is great for two reasons - we do not have the immense moral responsibility that we did when raising our children and there are so many ways of getting even - do you realize how much fun boys have in the tub with just a little bubble bath going through the jets? Especially, when you say "be sure to try this at home"

Here we are......

.... when I think of something more important to say....I'll be back