Five Things Friday (Really, Five Grandchildren, Not Things, But!)

A few months ago, I posted about how much I loved the communications technologythat keeps my grandchildren close. And having been cooped up on my own this week, sick, I appreciated it even more, getting doses of the best medicine via my iPhone. I added a few new videos to my Happiness file — a 2-year-old dancing, a 7-month-old just mastering her crawl, same 7-month-old convulsed in laughter at her dad scolding the cat. And I added new photos to Nana’s Brag Screensaver. Mind if I share?

1. Eloise of the big, big eyes, concentrating on her main job, gaining weight, which she’s doing admirably well.

2. Frankie, the newly mobile Baby who loves to laugh.

3. Hattie, who helped Granddad baby-sit Frankie one day last week (Is it okay for me to admit how envious I am that he can do this while I have to be at work? I know, I know, only a few more weeks of that. . . )

4. Not everyone communicates solely through their phones and dataplans, however. Some still participate in the wonderfully sensory world of snail mail — real correspondence. Small fingers sounding out words and printing them, then adding illustrations. The words require some sensitive decoding but ah, the delights revealed include poems and jokes and clapping hands (more precisely, at the end of the poem’s first line was an instruction: Klap 2 tims, and a drawing of a hand, for those whose reading skills might be weak). All inside a richly patterned (peacocks and fans and flowers, greens and coral and gold) notecard and its matching envelope, so that I know my daughter held both her mother and her daughter (yes, Nola, 6) together in her mind while choosing and buying it. Priceless.

5. Will be here very soon. I’m trying to finish this blanket first.

 Not sure if I’ll give it to the new arrival or let his big sister have it and begin another for him.

Watch this space. . . .

And after a night of little sleep, checking text messages through the night, I’m updating to add that wee Fergus has arrived, two weeks early. I’m hoping to catch the early ferry and meet him a bit later this morning — also hoping the combo of bliss and adrenaline will compensate for a night’s lost sleep after a week of illness. Can’t wait to meet Hattie as a big sister!

21 Comments

  1. SmitoniusAndSonata
    27 March 2015 / 1:21 pm

    How wonderful ! Congratulations to you all .
    Fergus is never going to be short of playmates !

    • materfamilias
      28 March 2015 / 9:44 pm

      Thank you, and no, he's certainly not!

  2. Madame Là-bas
    27 March 2015 / 2:35 pm

    It seems that Hattie was just born and now she's a babysitter and a big sister! Congratulations on another little sweetie!

    • materfamilias
      28 March 2015 / 9:45 pm

      Thanks, Madame. It just races by, doesn't it!

  3. LPC
    27 March 2015 / 2:39 pm

    Such riches. Such riches.

    • materfamilias
      28 March 2015 / 9:46 pm

      I do feel very lucky!

  4. Marie
    27 March 2015 / 6:02 pm

    Congratulations! Another sweet baby. I love the description of Nola's note. I wish we could clone her!

    • materfamilias
      28 March 2015 / 9:48 pm

      Thanks, Marie. Glad you Enjoyed that description. I debated sharing a photo of the note, but it seemed to betray an intimacy. Putting my enjoyment of it in words felt more respectful, somehow.

  5. Susan B
    27 March 2015 / 6:40 pm

    What a wonderful time in your life, so much joy!

    • materfamilias
      28 March 2015 / 9:49 pm

      It really is, so joyful, so lucky.

  6. hostess of the humble bungalow
    27 March 2015 / 7:37 pm

    I agree with Lisa's sentiments…an abundance of riches!
    Congratulations! Fergus is a sturdy sounding name…

    • materfamilias
      28 March 2015 / 9:50 pm

      Thanks, L. I really love the name.

  7. Ceri
    27 March 2015 / 7:49 pm

    Congratulations – another joyful arrival

  8. Lorrie
    27 March 2015 / 8:58 pm

    Overflowing joy! Congratulations.

  9. Pondside
    27 March 2015 / 11:13 pm

    Joy!!! What wonderful news and a grand name!

  10. K.Line
    28 March 2015 / 12:13 am

    Oh, yet another adorable name! Congratulations.

  11. annie
    28 March 2015 / 8:53 am

    Goodness! Another…what joy. And a chap! Have fun cuddling all and sundry.

  12. Elizabeth Musgrave
    28 March 2015 / 9:51 pm

    Isn't it wonderful, this rush of new humanity? We have two new babies expected this summer to add to the four grandchildren. Wonderful.

  13. materfamilias
    28 March 2015 / 9:53 pm

    Thanks so much for celebrating my good news with me so generously. We're a bit overwhelmed by our good fortune, quite honestly, and my relief has revealed all those possible worries I'd kept to myself. So happy to have moms and babes thriving, dads so wonderfully supportive.

    • Pondside
      28 March 2015 / 10:19 pm

      It is the universal concern of grandmothers. So glad all is well. I am up to my ears in foir little ones and acres of Alberta March-mud. What did our mothers do before heavy duty washers and dryers?

  14. Mardel
    29 March 2015 / 4:31 pm

    Babies, and blankets and so much joy and yes, LPC, said it, richness. Such wonder to be found. Enjoy.

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