Four Generations

 Spent a little bit of time yesterday with my youngest grandchild, Lizzie. She doesn't look very comfortable in this picture, but she was happy. She is almost always happy, or maybe I should say content. She doesn't cry much (at least not while I was there today) and she tries to coo and communicate.

My mother and father followed me to my daughter's house to see their great grandchild for the first time. Mother, who is in the late stages of Alzheimer's had no idea that this was her great-grandchild or even remembered her name after two minutes. I think we had to tell her about seven time what her name was. She may not have known her, but she loved her! Wanted to hold her so bad. But she wasn't able. Dad, as always was all smiles. Always is when he is around his family.

My son wasn't here, as Lizzie was visiting with her Aunt for the weekend to give her mommy & daddy a break. But four generations, how is that even possible. It seems like yesterday it was just me and these two. My mom & Dad (that was before my brothers as I was five before my first sibling came along)

Mother is 82 now, and even though here in body, mother left us a few years ago. Slowly. Alzheimer's is a cruel disease. She is nothing close, personality wise to who she used to be. She doesn't know any of us now, except for Dad. Regardless, she still smiles, and gives the best hugs. She also tells us all about her mom and dad. My grandparents died in 1999 and 2000, but she believes she lives with them.  And maybe in her mind she does and that is okay. 

Cherish days like this. Family. Parents. 

This is what life is really all about.

Meet Lizzie

 On Monday, July 27, 2020 my 4th grandchild was born. Now mind you I have 10 grandchildren, but six of them are step-grandchildren. I only have four "blood" grandchildren now.

This is Alizabeth AnneMarie, or as we will all call her, Lizzie.

Lizzie is my youngest son, Adam's daughter. He was the one that battled Hodgkin's and was told due to all the chemo and radiation that he would be sterile. But low and behold, he and his girlfriend did conceive.  Doctor's don't know it all.

Welcome to this crazy world, Lizzie.

Last Chapter of 2009

We are coming to the close of another year and with it the close of another chapter of our lives. This was my 49th year and during this year many things took place and changes were made in our lives that will effect us from now on. My son Adam's battle raged on in 2009 and finally by December a reprieve has come as his tumors have shrunk, are not active and in remission. We had loss with the death of an uncle unexpectedly at 59, and DJ's grandfather at the age of 70. We had wedding engagements, Anniversaries and new babies, as my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in July and Dan became an Uncle with the birth of his Nephew, Jayden in August. We also had breakups as my daughter moved back home with her two girls to start off on her own again after 7 years. Health issues continued to rear its ugly head as my diabetes continued to spiral out of control, and finally became controllable only to find out that I may be in the early stages of Andropause...yes that is male menopause and its real, as well as my own scare with skin cancers. We grew a year older and in some cases a wiser. We laughed, we cried and we loved.

Yes many things transpired in 2009, some of them joyous and good, others were not. But, through it all it has taught us that life is so precious, and that family and love are the most important things in this life. If we have those in order everything else will fall into place!

So as we close on 2009, I say thank you and look forward to what 2010 my bring. Who knows maybe I'll get that HDTV this year.... (hint hint).

Thomas the Train

Saturday night I received a lesson in engines. Train engines that is. From my two-year old grandson. I learnt all about Thomas, James, Gordan and Henry, just to name a few! It amazes me that a two year old is so engrossed in a cartoon show.

But then that should not surprise me that much, I mean it was Sesame Street in my day, now it is Thomas the Train and Spongebob Square pants.

My Grandson let me know right away when he arrived at my home what our agenda was going to be. When I turned on TV it was on HLN (Headline News). His response to the was..."What this crap?" and then was proceeded with.."We watch Thomas!" Wherein at that point he pulled out his DVD collection.

Yes, Thomas the Train it was.

2009 Update

I know it has been a month since my last real post, however with Adam's diagnosis and hospital visits, the holidays and moving, time has just not allowed me to post as much as I would like. So for a quick update...

ADAM: He is doing very well. He has had two sessions of chemo already and is tolerating them extremely well. The tumors have already went down considerably. At least the ones we can see, the ones in the lung we are not sure of yet. A pet scan is going to be done on the 12th of January and once we get the results we will know if the chemo is doing what it is supposed to be doing. You can follow his journey with Hodgkins at his blog ADAM'S JOURNEY

HOLIDAYS: The same as last year only we are all another year older. Actually Christmas was very nice and it was good to have all the family together again. My daughter came down from Columbus on Christmas Eve, so all four of my kids were here as were my grand kids. It was very nice. DJ and i did not exchange gifts this year, however we did buy some new rings for one another. they are titanium carbide, and look very nice with one single diamond in the center. This is the first time in the almost 9 years we have been together that we have really nice rings.
New Years was uneventful, well not really, but i can not share right now. I will let you know in a few days what the "secret" is. We had a little get together New Years Eve with DJ's family, which is always nice. I enjoy his family and the bond they seem to have. It is good to bring in the new year with them.

MOVING: Yes, we have moved again. Just down the street into a two bedroom apartment. With Adam spending more and more time with us, I felt it was time to get him and J2 their own room to share when they are here. The place is very nice and has not only two bedrooms but two baths as well! That is almost a necessity with four "almost" men in the house.

Terrible Twos

My grand-daughter Alana turned two today. They grow up so quickly. She is a handful for her mommy, but such a beautiful little girl. Here are some pics of here special day.

Fathers

I try to think that I am a good father. I've done the best I could do, anyway. My kids are all almost grown now, out on their own. Two of them are parents themselves now, trying to be good parents.

Yesterday I was at my gradson's 2nd birthday party, and I watched the fathers there.

I watched my son, with his son. He was patient, understanding and playful with him in a way I don't remember being with my own sons. At least not that I remember. I mean I was patient most of the time, and extremely understanding and I played with my kids, but for some reason it seemed different watching my son do those things.

I also watched my own father who was there. 69 years old and he still expects a hug and a "I love you" before we leave him. Adoring to my mother (who happened to be having her own birthday as well) He took time out of the festivities to take a look at my sons car to help him with air-conditioning, as his words were "You better not drive around in that hot car with no air, with that baby!" Always the father.

I watched others as they were there with their children and step-children. Then I looked over at DJ. There he sat on the floor with my grandson, opening all of his toys, taking them out of the boxes and putting them together as my grandson hands him the boxes and says "opnit". I looked at him with admiration and respect. He was enjoying being in the midst of the chaos, and helping the little guy put the toys together so he could play with them. He too was being fatherly and thinking of Rylan first.

Something very special happened in that moment as I watched him play with my grandson and watched Rylan's eyes at "Nad" (that is what he calls Dan, he says his words backwards.) I realized not only what a great person, and great man he is, but also what a great dad he is to my own children and grandchildren. Something else happened yesterday that also made me realize how others see Dan in our family. My daughter-in-law was making introductions as there was family members from her side of the family as well. She introduced Dan as... "Joe's dad's husband, Dan" It sounded a little funny at first, but her saying it and introducing him that way, it really made him part of the family.

Fathers Day is a special day and not just because I am a father. It can show us not just who the fathers are, but it also shows is the DADS. Anyone can be a father, just a few moments of pleasure and a child can be conceived and you become a father, but it takes a real man to be a Daddy. And you also don't have to be a natural father to be a Dad.

Happy Daddy's Day!

Birthday Month

Our family has a full month in June of Birthdays. Today is my mother's 70th Birthday. We will be celebrating this special day with her next Saturday with a big surprise birthday party. She doesn't ready my blog so I am not giving anything away.

Tomorrow my grandson will turn two. We are having a little celebration planned this afternoon for the little birthday boy. I am sure I will have pictures to post tomorrow.




Many cousins, aunts and other family members celebrate their birthday in June as well. Leads me to believe that many in my family were busy people in the month of September!





Happy Birthday to all in June. (Pictures of the festivities will soon follow!)

Where Have You Been!?

Are you asking that? I know it's been way too long since I last posted, but to be honest I haven't had much to post about. I know just anything works, anything I say you will read and enjoy, right? I know better. So I try to post interesting happenings in my life. But when nothing interesting happens, well it's kind of boring. It's okay to think that my life is boring, I do all the time. So where have I been, you ask? (I know you really didn't, just go with me here, okay?)

Well, the end of the month of April, DJ and I travelled 2 hours north to Columbus and spent a couple nights with my daughter the princess and her little princesses. Quite an eye opening experience. I forgot how much it takes to take care of two little ones. Hats off to my daughter! How she does it is beyond me. Maybe it was all that training she had helping take care of her two little brothers. We had an enjoyable visit, and was able to bond a little with Alana. She is getting so big. Alyssa slept most of the time, but that is what two month olds normally do. We went to the Columbus Zoo while we were there. A very nice Zoo, I enjoyed the openness that it had. You felt you were right there with the animals.

Due to the soaring gas prices it will probably be a while before we make another trip to anywhere though! They hit $3.79 a gallon this week. Luckily I filled up the day before when it was still only $3.49 a gallon, which still cost me almost $50.00 to fill my tank! Incredible. I remember the 1970's during the gas wars, remember those??? We thought gas was high then. They are saying it will be over $4.00 a gallon by summer. I believe it!

Well that's all for now. I am not going to make any promises about blogging more, but I will try, but until then ...well just go back to what you were doing.

Thursday Thirteen #21

I honor of my new Grand-Daughter Alyssa;

Thirteen Things I Had Forgotten About a New Baby.

1) They sleep A LOT! But only during the day of course.

2) They SHIT A LOT!!

3) They are really not smiling at you, that is gas.

4) You really should not push on that soft spot in their heads.

5) They do not understand baby talk any more than the rest of us.

6) When crying, they really don't care who you are as long as you are giving them the bottle.

7) They really do know the sound of mommy's voice.

8) The terrible twos are just around the corner.

9) No, they don't look like grandpa!!

10) The whole navel thing!! I completely forgot about that!!

11) Toys do not interest them, at least not yet.

12) They are so tiny

13) There is noting more precious than holding a newborn in your arms.

Call Me Grandpa!

I am a grandfather again. Tonight at 8:22 p.m. my daughter gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Alyssa Brooke. She weighed 6lbs. and 9.6ozs. and was 19 inches long with big beautiful eyes and dark curly hair. I will have more pictures in the coming days I am sure!

The Reason Why...

Well hello! I have been told that I need to update my blog. I was excited actually. I didn't think anyone was even reading it, but I get not one but several requests to update??? Great! Thanks for reading, but since my last post things have went a little...crazy.

First of all my grand-daughter was hospitalized after a high fever caused by an ear infection caused her to go into seizures. We found out that this is somewhat common when infants have a spike in a fever. However, Alana continued to seize almost 50 minutes, which caused concern for the medical professionals treating her and fear for her parents. But everything is back to normal in my daughter's household, Alana is back home with no ill side effects. Mommy is doing well after the scare and the new baby is due February 29th. A Leap year baby.

Then last week I caught my own bug, Thursday I awoke to flu-like symptoms and continued to get worse as the day progressed and finally had to leave work and miss Friday. I was sick most of the weekend, finally feeling somewhat back to normal on Sunday.

So all the sickness has passed for the year. Let's hope anyway. It's not even the middle of January and I have had enough to do me the rest of the year. Think positive, right?

So that is my lame excuse for not blogging as often as I had promised, but for those of you out there that do read my postings, I will continue to try and stay well, and post more often.

Speaking of posting, it's that time of the year for all those awards shows. You all know how I love them, and I was deeply hurt that the Golden Globes were cancelled, but the winners were still announced and no suprises in my mind. Like the winners, Daniel Day-Lewis and Johnny Depp. Moveis like Sweeny Todd and Atonement. I just pray that the Oscars do not get cancelled. OMG! What will I do on Oscar night???

Playing Grandpa

I kept my grand-daughter overnight last night. Yes, I played grandpa. My daughter and her husbands had tickets to see the Bengals last pre-season game and called to ask me if I could watch Lana. Of course i jumped at the chance. She is such a good baby, and seems to content.

But that's when she has her mommy! For the ride to grandpa's she was fine, she even fell asleep for about 20 minutes. Once we arrived home she was fine, a little sleepy as the only nap she had was the one in the car. But then one of DJ's mom's barked, and she became terrified and began crying. It took me a few minutes but she calmed down. But for the entire stay she didn't want to get down on the floor. Would you with barking dogs bigger than you?

She played and she talked and she became DJ's little sisters best friend. Overall the night was good. She went down for the night about 9:30 or so and she slept until 5:30, I gave her another bottle and she slept until almost 10. Not bad for a 13 month old.

I had a good time with her, and I hope she will not relate grandpa to the place with the scary barking dogs!

A First

My grand-daughter, Alana turned one today. She is such a good baby, and she is a very happy little girl too. We traveled to Mt.Zion, Kentucky to celebrate her first year of life. All my kids were there, along with my grandson, Rylan and my parents. It was a great day, and everyone had fun. Even if we did have to take the scenic route to get to my daughter's house due to work on the interstate.

Unexpected News

I received some unexpected news this evening. It looks as though I am going to be a grandfather again. Yes, another grandchild is on the way. My daughter called me tonight and told me that she had something to tell me, but wanted me to sit down first.

I said "Why? Are you pregnant?"

Her answer was yes. Luckily I WAS sitting down. Her daughter, Lana will be a year old August 11th, and the new baby should be here sometime late February. Just when I was getting used to be called Grandpa, it comes again...

A Name Like Any Other...

...Still smells the same.

Now that I have moved into the world of grandfathering I have been contemplating what my grandchildren should refer to me as. Should it be Grandpa? Pops? Papaw? The list goes on and on. I can not settle on what I like the best.

Grandpa is what my kids call my father, so that will just confuse them, as both my parents are still living and actually see my grandson more than I do. They live right across the street from my parents. Pops just sounds, well weird. Papaw is what I called my grandfather, but he always seemed old. (even though he was only 41 when I was born, five years younger than I was when my first grandchild was born). Calling me by my given name just don't seem appropriate, and my kids didn't like my idea of them calling me gaypa, so I am at a flux.

I guess I will just wait and see what THEY call me, and I am sure that will stick. Until then I guess I am stuck with Grandpa!

Father's Day 2007

Last year on Father's day I was celebrating the birth of my first grandson, Rylan Justice. Yesteray we had a 1st birthday party for the little guy. Hard to believe that a year has already passed.

New Pictures

Hey go over and check out my new pictures of the grandkids on FLICKR. I have a link to my site on the left hand side of the blog. And while you are over there click the link to Lulu.com and buy my books, that is if you haven't done so already. You know you want to.

Memories

The weekend went off without any problems. My night of babysitting was good. Rylan decided to sleep until 4:00 a.m. and then woke ready to eat. He is definitely a morning baby. He woke up in a good mood, smiling and cooing. At 4:00 a.m.! He definitely doesn't take back after grandpa.

The rest of the weekend was kind of quiet. DJ worked Saturday and then we had a nice dinner and watched TV. Sunday was more of the same, watching TV, talking to my youngest brother who turned 37 on Sunday, and having a nice quiet dinner. We played some scrabble Sunday evening (I was beat twice, but only by one point the first game) and then some "Smallville" and off to bed.

Today being 9-11, I really don't want to watch the TV, and just don't want to relive all that horror, so I suppose I will clean house and job hunt.

I remember that day very vividly. I was at work and had went into the break room for some coffee and a couple of girls were in there saying that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. Of course we thought at first it was just an accident but then as the dram began to unfold we realized this was not an accident. Within 15 minutes the break room was at full capacity and work came to a halt throughout the office. It was just so surreal.

Isn't it amazing how our minds seem to store those kind of events in our minds with perfect clarity? I also remember the day Elvis died. I was at the Ohio State Fair for the week with the Ohio State Choir and heard it on the news. The first thing I did was call my mother. She was an avid Elvis fan. We cried together.

Or the day that Bobby Kennedy was shot? I was outside on our front porch talking with a neighbor kid and mom came out and told us to come inside. We sat in front of the TV watching the events unfold. Or the day Martin Luther King was killed? I was at school and we were sent home early. I remember teachers crying as they loaded us onto the buses. We had no idea what was happening until we got home. Of course I was really too young to understand who he was and the importance of his work, but I do remember mom saying that it would never be the same now.

Those days that mark history, mark our minds with memories of tragedy and horror. But then I think about those that were there. I was safe at work that day in September, miles away from ground zero. But those that were there that lived through it, that suffered a loss of dreams and hopes that day. There memories will be much more real than mine were that day. The effect of those days events will forever be part of their lives too, but in a much more horrific sense than I could even begin to imagine.

Memories.
My first weekend with my grandson. I prefer those kind of long lasting memories in my heart and mind. But we also have to remember those events in our lives that were not so pleasant to understand what life is all about.

Our heart goes out to those that lost loved ones that day. As all our lives changed after 9-11, their lives were shattered.

Grandpa Reality

Well it is now official. I am officially a real Grandpa. I know I was one on June 15, and August 11, but today I had my first taste of grandfathering. I picked up my grandson at noon today and he is staying the night with grandpa and DJ.

Now you have to remember the last time I was with a baby for that long of a time was when my youngest AT was a baby. He is now 13. And then his mother was just a few feet away. DJ worked today so I was on my own until about 5:30. It wasn't bad. Rylan and I watched The Emperor's New Groove, Shrek and Shrek 2. He had three bottles and one "poopy" diaper. He even had a little nap. All was good.

After DJ got home we had dinner and then went to see DJ's sister play softball. Of course my grandson stole the show, and all the girls on the team had to hold him. So all was well there. One of the girls on the team even changed his diaper for me and fed him. Now I know why all these straight single guys like taking their nieces and nephews out with them. They are great girl "magnets!' Then we got back home about 9ish, and at 10:00 all hell broke loose.

Rylan began crying and screaming and nothing either DJ or I did seemed to help. Finally I took him into my arms, held him close and began rocking him, within 5 minutes he was asleep. I think someone at home has this guy spoiled! So he is fast asleep in his little vibrating baby chair, and I am sitting here on pins and needles waiting for that heart wrenching scream to start over.

Hopefully he will sleep until his next feeding which is due at midnight and then I pray he will sleep through the night. I promised to do this for them once a month so that they can have some time with just each other. But before the next visit to grandpa, I think I'm going to have a little talk with them about how they should not spoil him. Or at least give me a heads up on how he likes to go to sleep.

All in all I have enjoyed this immensely. With my own kids I was so busy working and doing all those other things when I was married I really didn't get the chance to be as much hands on as I would have liked to be. This way I can be hands on as much as I want to be and then hand them back to mommy and daddy...