Tag Archives: grandchildren

We are family.

We have had family photos made every couple of years since our boys were young. I wanted to document the growth and changes in our family, and I also wanted the boys to have something to remember me by. When it came to candid family photos, I was always the one taking the photos; I was rarely in any of them. I once told Kenn that if anything happened to me, the boys wouldn’t remember what I looked like.

As the boys grew, our family did as well. Our first daughter-in-law joined our family photos when she and our eldest got engaged. Our youngest son’s long-term girlfriend soon joined our photos as well. As far as I’m concerned, if you date one of our sons, you’re family! When you get engaged to or marry one of our boys, you’re stuck with us for life. (Fortunately, our daughters-in-law like us, LOL.) Of course, this did make things a little awkward when our youngest son’s relationship ended on less than amiable terms. This was also about the time our eldest and his family moved to South Carolina, which made getting the whole crew together for photos a little more difficult. Until recently, our last family photos were taken in December 2019.

However, the photographer our OG daughter-in-law uses for their family photos was going to be in Atlanta the weekend of Mother’s Day 2026 and Atlanta is a good halfway point for all of us. So, we all met in Piedmont Park for an updated photo shoot.

Our family has gained several new members in the past six and a half years. The twins (the tiny people in the front row) were born in 2022. Our youngest son began a new relationship in 2020(ish) and we’re thrilled to have his now-wife as a part of our family photos for the first time. Actually, there is one family member not visible in the photos. Our youngest son and daughter-in-law (in pink/pink and blue on the right side of the picture) are expecting their first child (a girl) due in November.

I have to admit, when I first looked at this photo, I had a moment of… existential affirmation, maybe? Or maybe it was just a Bill and Ted “whoa” moment. For a moment I was just blown away by the fact that Kenn and I, the couple who’s marriage got off to such a rocky start, created this family. Now, we will literally live on in the DNA of our sons, their children, and their children for future generations innumerable. Also, I’ll be one of the people future generations are searching for when they are trying to figure out where their baby’s red hair came from, LOL.

How often do you have family photos taken?

Germ Warfare

If you’ve ever had kids, or been around children for any length of time, you know that when they are young and their immune systems are developing they basically become the world’s cutest little plague carriers. For several years, pretty much every bug going through the day care/school comes home to infect the whole family. Fortunately, as the kids grow and their immune systems strengthen, not every illness comes home. Then, after several years, the grandchildren come along and the process begins anew.

As of this writing, Kenn and I have three grandchildren: a twelve-year-old grandson, and his three-year-old brother and sister (fraternal twins). Up until our oldest son and his family (which includes all of the grandkids) moved to South Carolina, we kept our oldest grandson every other weekend; one of the times I have been the sickest was courtesy of him. At the time he was nine months old and fond of giving open-mouthed kisses as babies do when they’re first learning to kiss. It was adorable until he basically took out the whole family. I was sick as a dog for two weeks; everyone else shook it off after about a week. As for the grandson, he was fine; he was just a carrier. We still refer to it as the Babe-onic Plague.

Earlier this month, the twins were down visiting their other grandparents for a few days. Since we were headed to South Carolina for a weekend visit, we took the twins back with us. Lulu got a dose of Dramamine before we got on the road since she tends to get carsick. Everything was fine until just before we reached the Georgia/South Carolina border when Lulu started getting fussy. We took a break at the South Carolina Visitor’s Center so everyone could get out an move around. Lulu was not interested in anything. As I was carrying the pitiful little girl across the parking lot, I realized that she felt a little warm, but didn’t say anything. Kenn and I swapped off keeping an eye on the twins while the other went to the restroom. When I rejoined the group, Kenn said “Lulu feels a little warm to me.” I agreed, but we were almost to their house, so we loaded up and continued the journey. When we got to our son’s house, I told him that Lulu was fussy and felt a little warm, but he didn’t think she had a fever – until he took her temperature. Poor little girl had a temperature off 100.4o. Our daughter-in-law joined us at that point and our son greeted her with “Why does she get sick every time she visits your parents?” Of course, that’s one of those questions that has no answer. Poor little Lulu was sick all weekend; she was just miserable with a low-grade fever and a cough/congestion. (Linus, meanwhile, was fine.)

Kenn makes a pretty good napping buddy for a sick little girl.

When Kenn and I headed home on Monday, I was sleepy – which tends to be one of the first signs that I’m getting sick. The kids contacted us to let us know that Lulu’s COVID test was negative and that she was starting to feel a little better. Once we got home, Kenn and I spent the next few days suffering from a mild fatigue and I had a day of “brain fog” where words just weren’t working. After we started feeling better, I told him that I felt like I’d had a really mild case of COVID. It turns out that we probably did. Apparently there are a couple of new COVID variants that a lot of tests don’t detect. I’m just thankful that Lulu was feeling better in just a few days and that Kenn and I were only slightly under the weather.

Are there any Babe-onic Plague type stories in your family?

The Earworms from Hell

Wow. It’s been over a month since my last regular post.😲 I knew I had been busy but didn’t realize I had been that busy. Side note: I have also learned that working at an agricultural center in Spring means that all of the things have to be done at once. Walking eleven miles over the course of two days kind of brought home how much we were doing. However, I digress.

Merriam Webster defines an earworm as “as song or melody that keeps repeating in one’s mind.” In my opinion, some songs are more earworm material than others. I once had Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk stuck in my head for six days; to make it worse, I don’t even know all the lyrics.🤷‍♀️Kid’s songs are perfect earworm material; they’re short and catchy with simple, repetitive lyrics. (Don’t even get me started on the lyrics that make absolutely no sense. “Here we go looby loo, here we go looby light.” What does that even mean? And why is it just on Saturday night? Never mind. I don’t really want to know.)

I was reminded of the earworm-ness of children’s songs last week when we spent a few days helping out with our grandkids while our daughter-in-law recovered from surgery. The twins just turned one and are big fans of Ms. Rachel. Ms. Rachel and her Songs for Littles is currently the hot show for children four and younger. (When my boys were young, it was Barney & Friends.) Over the course of our visit we watched a few hours of Ms. Rachel. Sadly, Ms. Rachel came home with us in the form of persistent, annoying earworms. I’ll share my “favorites” below. (I’m using “favorite” sarcastically here.) Play at your own risk.

The Banana Song is the first song in this hour long video.

Trust me, having “Peel bananas, peel, peel bananas” on repeat in your head is enough to have you searching for something, anything to take its place. I was relieved to get in the truck to go home from work, turn on the radio, and hear Walk The Moon’s Shut Up and Dance. Ahhhhh. Sweet relief and a replacement for the Banana Song… at least temporarily.

What are your favorite and least favorite earworms? Is there even such a thing as a favorite earworm?