Grandparents

This past month Nic and I have been talking a lot about our wonderful grandparents: how we need to take advantage of our time with them, make more effort to be with them, and how the time can slip away so quickly. Both have our maternal grandparents are still around and have been quite healthy. They are such an important part of our lives. We love them deeply. Things may change very quickly and they may be gone before we know it.

About a week and a half ago we had a great grandparents day. Alecia, Nic's sister, called to say her and another sister, Ashley, were going to visit Granny. They invited us along. Hannah, Bryson and I met them at Granny and Grandpa Park's house (Nic's grandparents). I loved watching them interact with our children. Hannah was quite content at the beginning of the visit just to sit in Granny's lap in the rocking chair. When Grandpa came in, he was excited to see us all there and picked up Ashley's little boy, Lincoln. As he did so he said, "Oh grab, he's a heavy little wart!" We all giggled as Grandpa tried to make Lincoln smile. Bryson was sleeping in his car seat and when I finally got him out, Granny rushed right over and snatched him up. She held him the remainder of the time.

Granny usually visits us about once a week. We love her visits. She saves coupons for me out of her Sunday paper. I'm so glad she has an excuse to come up and visit. Sometimes her visits are just a few minutes while other times she'll stay for quite a long time reading books to Hannah.

To continue our grandparents day, we went to my grandparent's house for family night. We had called the night before so they were expecting us. Grandpa asked if there was anything specific we had wanted to do like play Rook. I told him I didn't think the kids would let us get much of a game in. So Grandpa pulled out a sticky note and a file and said he had some things prepared. He had us start with an opening song (I played one hand... well, one finger on the piano) and we had an opening prayer. Then Grandpa told us a wonderful story (more about his prisoner friend posted about previously... quite a miracle) and then we read three other stories/poems. All the stories related to things in their lives. Grandma held Bryson the majority of the time, smiling, cooing, and bouncing him. Bryson ended up screaming quite uncontrollably so our visit, unfortunately, came to an abrupt end. I was once again amazed at the lives of these two wonderful individuals I get to call my grandparents. They are constantly teaching and giving.

On Sunday we were privileged to have both sets of our maternal grandparents at Bryson's baby blessing. They continue to support and love us so much. Grandpa Baird was able to be in the circle to bless Bryson as he received part of Grandpa's name, Baird. Nic mentioned in the blessing how dear that name is to my heart and he hopes Bryson will know of its legacy. I was grateful to have our grandparents over to the house for the little luncheon. It was fun to see them interact together. Both of our grandpas worked at Geneva Steele and "knew" of each other. They had realized this 2 years ago at Hannah's one year birthday party, but re-realized it on Sunday! After quite some time of chatting, Grandpa finally says, "Oh, Lyle Park! I remember you!"

Grandpa Baird went into the hospital late Monday night. He was in the ICU and has since been moved to the trauma unit. How quickly things can change! How grateful I am for our grandparents, for their love, support, and constant example.