A Momentous Occasion!

Yes, indeed, this is a momentous occasion today. A darned good reason to celebrate, for sure.

What's to celebrate, you ask?

Well, at 6:30 a.m., 17 years ago today, my oldest grandchild was born!

For many years, I always referred to him as my "little prince" and yes, he was then and still is, Grammy J's "prince"!

I remember the evening before he was born quite well too as his parents were here at my house, along with daughter, Mandy and her then current boyfriend, a guy named Spencer. Bill, aka "Big Daddy", Carrie, Mandy and Spence were all working in the yard, mowing the lawn, raking and Spence was using a weed eater that everyone was joking about how it seemed with almost every stroke he took with that thing, he was clunking it against a rock or brick or stone of some kind!

It was a very fun-filled evening and unbeknownst to Mandy and me, shortly after Carrie and Big Daddy got back home, around midnight, she went into labor. The last thing we had said to her was to be sure to call us immediately as soon as she knew they were heading to the hospital, but that night, no phone call came. We tried to call her early in the morning and got no answer so Mandy and I immediately thought then that something was in the wind and she called the hospital to see if Carrie had been admitted and that's how we learned that the grandson was definitely on his way into the world.

Actually, shortly after learning that, we did get a call saying he'd arrived right around 6:30 a,.m. and that mother and son were both doing fine. So was Big Daddy but he's generally a pretty calm, laid back kind of guy, so we figured he'd be the epitome of a proud new father but also, a very unflappable new dad too.

Although I was supposed to be at work early that morning at the University, I called my supervisor and told her I'd be in sometime that morning but not until after I stopped by the hospital to see my first grandchild. My supervisor, whose name is also "Carrie" knew that my daughter was due any day and she knew then my grandson had been born and told me to take as long as I wanted to visit with my daughter, son-in-law and little Alex!

Even then, he was far from being little as he weighed in at well over 8 pounds! I don't recall today the exact weight, but I think it was 8 lb 11 oz and he was also 23 inches long!

From the time I got to the hospital until I finally left there several hours later, I spent the bulk of that time mainly just staring, in awe, at this little guy! He was beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Even in those first hours spent with him and his parents (as well as his paternal grandparents and his paternal great-grandfather and more relatives than you could shake a stick at from Big Daddy's kin who had to stop by and view him), it was evident from the start that he looked very much like his mother! Well, I could see that since I knew and remembered quite well what she looked like at that same age too, ya know!

I did get a chance to hold him as they had him in a bassinet in Carrie's room, right by her bed. but I also had to share that holding privilege with Pappy John (Bill's stepdad) and Grammy Marge, Bill's Mom, and Bill and Mandy too, who ventured in to meet her first nephew.

I finally left around noon-1 p.m. to go to work, feeling I was calm enough to be able to do some work and also, because I gave up on getting to see him open his eyes because the entire time I was there, he kept those eyelids clamped tightly shut!

Actually, he was three weeks old before I finally saw him open his eyes in my presence! Guess I was way to scary sounding perhaps for him to dare to take a look at who this crazy old lady was who would come back their home and try to coax him into opening his eyes!

Today, Alex stands a little over 6'4" tall and is a big built young man. Still just as handsome as he was on that first morning 17 years ago too!

But tonight, he's darned lucky he's still able to breathe!

I had been expecting him and his mother to come to the house this evening after his Mom got off work tonight around 7 p.m. And, as often happens to me when I sit down in my recliner with a plan to work on my current embroidery project and listen/watch whatever might interest me on the tv simultaneously, I forgot that doing that often does something else to me too!

It frequently puts me to sleep.

And that's exactly what happened as I fell asleep in the recliner and didn't know that they had arrived at my house. The dog, good old Sammy, didn't even know they were here either as he didn't let out a single bark!

When they pulled the car in the parking spot (Alex was driving as he just got his license about 2 months ago now) and they both had figured I would probably be in the middle of a little cat nap, so he had turned the lights off on the car and even sort of glided it into the parking area with the engine cut off.

A sneaky attack approach ya know!

And, Alex very quietly made his way into the house while his mother stood outside at the bow window, watching as he came up behind my chair, grabbed the back of the chair, shook it and yelled at me!

Both of them then just howled laughing as they witnessed me actually almost leaping out of that chair -at least a foot or two in what seemed like I was airborne!

I told him then, "Boy, you are so lucky that I love you as much as I do because otherwise, I'd probably be trying to strangle you for playing a trick like that on me!"

And that then set the tone for the three of us for the next couple of hours as we sat and talked, told stories about the morning Alex was born, joked about the line we used on Big Daddy for many years too about his "having priorities" because as Alex was being born, Bill felt he had to call his boss and tell him he wouldn't be there to open up the shop that morning as his wife was having their son right then and there!

Alex had Carrie and I laughing over and over again tonight too as he regaled us with things he has done and said to his Dad on numerous occasions that pretty much tended to leave his Dad at a loss for words or just sputtering, trying to find a retort to some of Alex's comments to him. All good-natured teasings really but funny as all get out to listen to Alex tell these stories about his Dad!

Carrie finally went up to bed about 11 p.m. as she was exhausted, having worked a 12 hour shift at the hospital on her regular job along with pulling an 8 hour shift last night, on the graveyard detail, at the nursing home where she used to work. The girl is either a workaholic or more than a touch insane I think to have scheduled herself to work 20 hours straight.
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Alex and I each then had a big bowl of ice cream and decided we would save the Boston Cream Cake I got for a birthday cake for him and the pies I baked this weekend for today -for his actual birthday celebration!

And I am ever so grateful, so happy, so proud too, that this handsome, polite, very funny too, young man is my grandson!

Wouldn't trade him for the world or all the tea in China or coffee from Brazil or any gems either because he is simply the gem that lights up my life more and more the older he gets!

Hope I get to spend many more birthdays with this now "Big Prince" in my life!