baby
When you have known someone all their life, it is easy to think of them always as a kid. Then one day you find yourself startled to find that they are all grown up, and while you were around them all their lives, you feel a bit like you don’t them at all. That is how I feel about my nephew, Eric sometimes. When Eric was a baby, my daughter, Amy babysat him and his brother, JD, so I saw a lot of them. Eric was a cuddler, and when we were in church, he would just snuggle up and go to sleep. He was such a good baby. I loved holding him when he was sleeping. Sleeping babies are always so sweet to watch…like little angels.
I don’t suppose most people would use the term angel for Eric any more, as I think he can be 
quite a teaser these days. During his years of growing up, Eric’s interests turned to things like BMX bikes, motorcycles, cars, and of course, girls. Eventually there would be just two girls in his life, and that’s just perfect if you ask me. He found and married his sweet wife, Ashley and they have a beautiful daughter, Reagan, who looks a whole lot like her daddy.
I guess you could say that Eric’s life has made a few twists and turns. He went from being a little snuggler to tearing up the track to a different kind of snuggling, and finally to a different kind of tearing up and a different kind of building. Eric and his wife, Ashley are in the midst of remodeling the house they bought next door to her parents place, so Ashley can be near her beloved horses, among other things. Ashley calls the remodeling job “building the 
dream” and I think she is right. Eric and Ashley have a dream life, living out in the country, near her horses, with plenty of places for Eric to ride his motorcycle, and plenty of room for their daughter Reagan to run and play, and sometime in the future, to get Reagan a little brother or sister to play with.
Today is Eric’s birthday. I hope you’ll take a little time off from the building to play today Eric, but if not, I guess you’ll be doing what you love anyway…building the dream. Happy birthday Eric!! We love you!! Have a wonderful day!!
As my oldest grandson, Chris turns 17 years of age, I find myself wondering just where the years have gone. I was there when he was born, and I’m certain it was just last week. Now he has grown so tall and handsome. He has been driving by himself for a year now, and that has changed things for his whole family, as he picks up his brother, Josh from school and drives him to games and to school. Chris, having a driver’s license has changed a lot of things…but how could he already be 17 years old.
Recently, Chris has taken an interest in cooking, and is not only cooking at his job, but he likes to cook at home too. He likes to bake as well, and has brought cookies to those of us blessed enough to receive some of them. He has a natural talent for cooking, and I would have to say that he comes by it naturally. His dad, my son-in-law, Kevin is an excellent chef as well. It is a blessing for my daughter, Corrie, because she not only gets help in the kitchen sometimes, but she also gets some excellent food too.
Chris is planning to take some college classes in his senior year of high school, to get ahead of the game for college, where he plans to get a business degree. How in the world could that baby, who was born just a week ago, be talking about college already?? How could he be talking at all?? He should still be a baby, not almost a grown man. Nevertheless, here we are…at his 17th birthday, the baby is gone, and in his place stands a young man of whom I am very proud. And while I hate the fact that he is growing up so fast, I love the man he is becoming. He is a good man, who doesn’t get into trouble. He is a hard worker, who is determined to make something of himself. He is a good student, who works hard for his grades. He is a mechanic in training, under the watchful eye of his dad. And most of all, he is a good Christian man, who loves God, and that, is the most important thing of all.
Today my first grandchild turns 17 years old. I can hardly believe that day is here already, and I couldn’t possibly be more proud of him. Happy birthday Chris!! we are all so proud of all your accomplishments. Have a wonderful day!! We love you very much!!
Through the years, people have had a special relationship with their puppy friends. Dogs just have a way of being more than just a pet. So many dogs have protected their owners from harm, and when they are with the children of their owners, they become even more protective. They seem to think of the children as their own babies, or maybe their siblings. It is so strange that an animal can have such strong feelings for their owners, but as we all know, dogs can be very smart. My grand niece, Reagan’s dog, Ayva thinks Reagan is her baby. She expects to be involved in every part of Reagan’s life…nap time, play time, and of course, walks.
Dogs have a natural instinct when it comes to the developmentaly disabled. They seem to be more gentle with them, even when they are a little rough. My sister-in-law, Marlyce was developmentally disabled, but her puppy friend didn’t seem to mind anything she did. That dog was her friend for life, and she was his best pal. I think dogs have a sort of motherly or fatherly feel toward the developmentally disabled, because they know that they need a little extra help sometimes, almost like a child, even if the person is not a child.
An older kid with a dog has a playmate that doesn’t get in fights with them. Dogs just 
want to play and be with you. They don’t care what they get to do, they just want to go along. My grandson, Caalab’s dogs like to go camping, while my grandson, Josh’s dog thinks she should get to go everywhere with Josh, including school, if she could get away with it. The boys and their dogs don’t have to be doing anything special for them to be happy, because doing anything with the boys, makes the dogs and the boys very happy. They just want to be their friend.
Once in a while, you come across a baby, who makes the funniest faces. Reagan is just three months old, but she makes great funny faces. She has great teachers, so you might say it isn’t so unusual, except that she was less than a month old when this first picture was taken. How do you get a baby to make the same face as her daddy, when she is not even a month old? I don’t see how, but here is Reagan, my grandniece doing just that. Amazed, I asked her mom how they got her to do that, she said, “We just asked her nicely and she did.” Of course, she had no idea how it happened either, and yet, Reagan did a perfect imitation of her daddy for this picture.
And, we have all seen the pictures that everyone is doing these days, where everyone in the picture has their tongue sticking out, and of course, Little Miss Reagan is no exception. She has to make sure she keeps up with the rest of the in crowd of babies, so as soon as she could work it out, she had her mommy and daddy take the first of these necessary pictures. I mean, a girl has to make the right moves so she can get set up with the in crowd. Not that I expect Reagan to ever have any trouble being in the in crowd, because she has personality to spare. I think she will be a natural in any crowd she wants to be in. Everyone likes a girl with a smile on her face, who can make people laugh.
I think Reagan comes by her knack for cute little faces naturally…I mean when you look at the faces her parents make, you have to assume that some of that will rub off on their children. It could be the faces she sees them making, or it could be that she simply inherited it. It is still very odd how she managed to make the same face as her daddy when she wasn’t even looking at him. Maybe they really are two of a kind, or maybe it helps to just ask. However it happened, my guess is that we will be seeing lots more of this little girl making these funny faces, because I think it is just a part of her nature, and I think that her parents funny faces won’t hurt when it comes to working up a funny face.
There is an old saying, “as snug as a bug in a rug.” Now I don’t know how long that saying has been around or if my father-in-law’s nickname came from that or not, but when he was a baby, they either switched that saying around, or made up their own, but he was “as cute as a bug.” That saying was used around him so long that somehow the nickname Bug eventually remained, and Bug he has been ever since. It’s funny sometimes, how these nicknames come about, and when you look back on them, you wonder why anyone would think that was cute, but on him it is nevertheless. And it has never changed. For all the years I have known and been in this family, his mom, sisters, and, brothers, called him Bug. When I asked why they called him that, they told me that he was as cute as a bug.
I can’t say that I have ever felt like bugs were cute, except maybe the Ladybug, but apparently either I was missing something, or they were cuter back then, or maybe it was just that boys thought they were cute, or great, or whatever. I suppose that for a boy, Bug would be a pretty good nickname…I mean, how many guys go by snake or something like that, and I have to tell you that I like Bug a whole lot better. Snake reminds me of somebody who might slit your throat in a gang fight, and I have to wonder how comfortable I would have been at 17 years of age, upon meeting my boyfriend’s dad and having him be introduced as Snake. Yikes, I don’t think so, and besides that, my father-in-law is not snake-like at all. He’s far too nice a guy for that. Of course, they didn’t introduce him as Bug either, but eventually the nickname came out.
Even though he has been Bug for as long as I have known him, my father-in-law would undoubtedly pass out if I ever called him that, and I can’t imagine doing it anyway. For one thing, since it was a nickname from his childhood, it seems better suited to childhood, and of course, for his family it was just as normal as calling my grandson Joshua, by his nickname, Josh, but if you didn’t start out using the nickname Bug by knowing him as a child, it might seem a little odd to start using it on him when he is your father-in-law, or at least that’s the way I see it. No, I’ll just have to leave that one for his brothers and sister, who will never get past calling him that anyway. You have to admit though, that he was as cute as a Bug!!
When you are little, your best friends are usually your brothers and sisters. And back when Bob and his sisters were little, there was no such thing as a play date. Kids played with their siblings until they started school, and a lot of times after school, especially when you lived out in the country. A lot of times there were no kids that lived very close, so once again, your siblings were your friends, and that wasn’t always so bad.
There was always some way to get into mischief when there were three of you. There are also lots of ways to have fun. Who needs to have company over when you have siblings. In this case, three’s company, and fun would be had by all. It might be in the form of trying to put 2 kids into a tricycle built for 1 toddler…the type that had almost a baby walker type seat on it. I have to wonder if Debbie had trouble getting out of that tight spot after she got in…or maybe she had help getting in and out. I don’t know for sure. I just know that it 
was the same tricycle Marlyce had used as a toddler, so it wasn’t built for 2.
Whether it was playing at home or riding horses at Grandma’s house, this little trio lived life with gusto. They got into trouble on occasion, but not all the time. Their imaginations ran wild at times, and when they did…well, the trouble could be bad…for their parents, who had to fix whatever the kids messed up, and from what I’ve been told, this little trio messed things up pretty good a couple of times. Still, when you look at those cute little faces, how could their parents be mad?
When you are a young person, you can look ahead to the future, and in your minds eye, you see how things will happen just the way you plan or expect them to be. You have no doubt in your mind that you will become what you plan, do the things you plan to do, go the places you plan to go. It is all up to you. It is your life to plan and live as you choose. Then comes the inevitable curve ball. The moment when everything changes. Your world turns upside down, and the things that seemed important before, aren’t anymore. It can be almost anything, from the loss or serious illness of a parent, as it was in my case, to a car accident, to a unplanned baby, to…well, you get the idea. And in reality, most of us have several of these moments that come to pass in our lives, that are life altering, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, and sometimes…just different than you had expected.
I have had several life altering moments in my life, as have most people, such as falling in love with my husband, and choosing to have children and marriage instead of finishing my college education, which changed my future from a teaching career to the one I now have, which is as an insurance agent. For those who know me, you know that my new career choice and the current boss that I have at that job have made all the difference as other life altering changes have occurred.
For me the biggest and most traumatic curve ball, came when my dad became ill with Pancreatitis on October 1, 2005, in Canada. My sisters and I drove straight through to Canada, and spent the next 2 weeks at his bedside in Canada until he could be transferred by Life Flight to Wyoming Medical Center. After 4 months and 4 surgeries, Dad was finally able to come home. It would be a long recovery. It was during that time that I found out what my second calling was. I was able to understand the medical jargon and so, became one of his main caregivers. My mother would get sick during that same time with a Brain Tumor, that is gone now. Later my in-laws would be added to my caregiving tasks. My father-in-law has Emphysema and my mother-in-law has Alzheimer’s Disease.
After 7 years of caregiving, I am quite sure I could have been a nurse, except that being a caregiver for elderly people is very hard on your emotions. You know you are fighting a losing battle, and your efforts are only holding off the inevitable. I am not sorry to have taken the journey that my curve ball has taken me on, and it is very rewarding when you win a health battle, even if it is only a temporary win. Looking back, later on, I will always know that I did the best I could do, I gave the very best that I could give, and hopefully, 4 lives were made better through my efforts, and those of the team of people who help me every day.
Isaac, who is the youngest son of my niece, Jenny and her husband, Steve, has always seemed like the quiet one. Don’t let that fool you into thinking that Isaac isn’t all boy. He and his brothers are very rough and tumble. They are always wrestling around, and playing all the tough boy games that boys love. Issac may be the youngest of the 3 boys, but he is no quitter. He will take on his big brothers in any game.
There is one area of Isaac’s life that requires a little bit of a softer touch, however. That is in the area of his little baby sister, Aleesia. You can’t play rough with babies, and Isaac is definitely up for that challenge. Isaac has been the baby of the family for a long time, and he wanted to be the big brother for quite a while now. His big brothers got to be big brothers and now…finally it was his turn. And, think Isaac is doing a wonderful job as big brother.
For now Isaac and his big brothers will have to be gentle with Aleesia, because she is just a little girl, but I think she might want to get busy and grown up tough, because I think the day will come when they will decide that she can handle their type of play. Girls with brothers do tend to be tomboys sometimes…at least until their teens. Then I think Isaac will find himself in charge of making sure nobody picks on her…self appointed in charge.
Isaac is an all around good brother and tough guy, because being the youngest of 3 boys demands that you be able to handle yourself. I remember when he was pretty little, and the older boys still wrestled around with him. I guess with brothers, it’s get tough or cry. Now, mind you, they weren’t mean. It’s just that boys will be boys, and Isaac needed to figure that out right away. And it worked out really well, because all the boys are good friends, and on one thing they all agree…their sister, Aleesia is the best sister a guy could ever ask for. And I think Isaac is the best big brother a girl could ever ask for too.
Many people have been looking forward to this day all year, because they believe it will be the luckiest day of the year, or just a cool day to get married or have a baby on, or whatever special thing they have going on in their lives. This day does not feel like a cool day to me, but it is a day that I will mark for a very different reason. Today, 12-12-12 at 12:00pm, marks the 5 year anniversary of my dad’s graduation to Heaven. I know that was a wonderful day for him, but for me, it is a lonely day, because I miss him so much. It never occurred to me when I was growing up, that I would ever live a day without my parents on this earth. A crazy thought…probably, but it was the thought of a daughter who loves her parents very much…a daughter who could not imagine a world without her dear parents in it…then. I can imagine it now, and I do not like it at all.
Looking back on all the wonderful days of my first 50 years, I know without question that I have lead a very blessed life, as have my mom, my sisters, and all of my dad’s grandchildren and those great grandchildren who had the opportunity to know him. Dad was fun loving, and made things fun for all of us. He was a great kidder, and 
passed that love of teasing on to his girls. There was always some kind of joking going on, and it taught us to take a joke and to laugh about things. There was always a lot of laughter at our house.
My dad always seemed so young. He never seemed to age. I think it was that he was so young in spirit. He was a kid at heart, and it carried into his life. Dad was a very positive, loving person. He always had a way of looking for the best in people and the best in every situation. What a great way to be!! I think that is one of the things that made my dad great. My dad is the kind of person I want to be, but I could never be as amazing as he was. All I can do is try my best to follow in his footsteps…to live the way he taught us. He made being a loving person seem so easy, no matter what was going on…he just walked in love. Forgiving people for their faults and looking for something good in them. It didn’t matter what mistakes we made as kids, Dad always said something like, “Well, just try to do better next time.” Whenever I’m having a rough day, I think back on Dad’s forgiving ways, and I try to live in a way that would make him 
proud of me.
Five long years have come and gone since my dad went to Heaven. It is our great loss, and Heaven’s gain. I know that my dad is ok, and living happily with his parents, sisters, his 2 granddaughters and other family members who have gone before, and that this is their time with him. I know they are busily catching up and rejoicing in the presence of our Lord. I know I will see him and the rest of the family again. And mostly, I know that the Comforter is with me and my family today, because God knows we have need of comfort. I love you Daddy, and I’ll see you again very soon. You are in my future for now.
Most babies have a tendency to grab anything that gets near them, especially long hair. My grandson, Caalab was not an exception in that, except for the fact that he never pulled. From the time he was 6 months old, he has played with my hair in one wary or another. Not every woman likes having her hair touched or played with, but I do, as do most of my family members. To me, it is very relaxing, and I could let him do it all day. I have fared well in that too, since his mom, my daughter Amy is pretty tender headed, and his sister, my granddaughter, Shai doesn’t like it at all, so Caalab had to wait for his grandma. How blessed was I on that one?
As I said, Caalab started playing with my hair when he was about 6 months old, and he never pulled on it. I have never seen a baby be so gentle with hair in my life. He gently ran a few strands between two of his little fingers from top to bottom. I guess he liked the way the hair felt as it ran between his fingers…just like his grandma does. To this day I play with my own hair, unless I can get someone to do it for me.
As the years have gone by, the way Caalab has played with my hair has changed. He is a very creative boy. He has brushed, twirled, flipped, and slapped my long hair, as anyone who knows him can attest, but he is very gentle. My Dad used to get a kick out of him at church, because when we stood up to sing, Caalab would climb up on the chair and start to play with my hair. I suppose some people might think he shouldn’t be doing that in church, but he was very well behaved in church, and all the church members knew what he was doing, and they always had to smile about it. The 
way I saw it, he wasn’t running around getting in trouble, and he wasn’t crying. It was a win-win situation.
It is my guess that Caalab will always like to play with someone’s hair. I feel very blessed to have been on the receiving end of so many relaxing hours while he played with mine, and as for his girlfriends, and his future wife…they will need to like to wear their hair long, and love having it played with. And take it from someone who knows, you will be blessed for years by this habit Caalab has. And if you get tired of it…send him to his grandma’s house, because I’ll be happy to let his play with my hair.
