Great-Grandpa Fred, aka "Pops"

The kids one and only living GREAT grandfather passed away yesterday. I consider them lucky that they were able to meet their Great-Grandfather, Pops, before he died. We all celebrated his 92nd Birthday last November at his nursing home and there were some photos taken with he and all of the grands and great grands. Those photos will be great memories for all of us. Although we're not sure if he really understood why we were there, he enjoyed being surrounded by his family and a few bites of birthday cake. The little kids probably won't remember him - but they have pictures to remind them who he was. He was so proud that he had 7 great grandchildren.

I knew I was lucky to still have a Grandparent living at my age. Pops led a fun life over his 92 years. He was lonely in his later years - but insisted on staying in Florida for as long as he possibly could. He entered a nursing home about two years ago in Florida and was perfectly content there for a while. He then started to become more and more dependent on others and eventually moved up to Maryland to be closer to our family. His only Son, my Uncle R, lived closeby and visited him most often.

I have fond memories of visiting my Grandparents down in Florida as a kid. Pops taught us all that we know about fishing. We loved going out on his boat "Thanks Mac". He loved having his grandchildren around. We took annual trips to Marco Island for visits and we loved being there. He paraded us around and showed us off like we were celebrities. Being a realtor on Marco Island for many years, he knew lots of people - and lots of people knew him! He truly was a piece of work, as some of you who knew him can attest to. He never did know how to spell my name correctly - it always had a "y" at the end - but it never really mattered. He thought the world of us kids.

He was always extremely fit and healthy - an avid tennis player, and tennis watcher. I remember always having to watch tennis on tv as a kid with him. No fun as a kid, but something I can appreciate now. And he ate slender with bran flakes and grapefruit for breakfast every morning. Occassionally, he would slip in one of those skinny pieces of toast - dry. He always ate lots of vitamins and fell for any investment gimick that came his way.

In his later years, it was hard to see him become more frail. The man we always knew as very in shape and active was not able to get around on his own as well any more. His false teeth didn't fit quite right any more because he had lost some weight and body fat. They chattered when he talked - and sometimes even flew out of his mouth (rest assured, I'm laughing out loud as I write this).

One of my funniest memories that I share with C. and our best friends is the day that he had his teeth in his pants pocket (yes, you read that right) and when he stood up to go upstairs, he did not realize that they had fallen out. There they were, just sitting right in the middle of the couch. I looked over and we all saw them at the same time - I've never seen a group of people laugh so hard in my life. He was totally oblivious and had no idea what he had left behind. Had it been anyone but him, it would have been embarrassing. But he never cared about that stuff - he just lived his life as if he was the only on in it.

Ah, there are so many more fun and funny memories. Those of you who knew Fred, you know what a character he was. He was a fun loving, carefree, happy guy. I hated to see him suffering in his later years so knowing he's out of pain and happy again is comforting. You can bet that he's in a much happier place. Rest in peace Pops.

Has it been 2 weeks?

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I've written - I really do miss blogging so much. I think about it all of the time and whenever I have the time to get to it, it's usually 10pm at night and I'm beat. That said, there's lots to catch up on.


We've just come through another sickness fog - this winter has been BRUTAL! JD so nicely threw up all over my car on Thursday on our way home from school and it went downhill from there. Needless to say, it was a LOOOONNNNGGGG weekend and we're happy that everyone seems to be healthy again. Today was our first normal day in a week. Phew.


That is, aside from the fact that JD is now calling me "HON" after every request. As in "I need some more milk HON" or "Please scoot me in on my chair HON". Is that a hoot or what? As if MOM wasn't bad enough a few weeks ago? For those of you who know what a HON is (Baltimore lingo), it's not a flattering term and the only thing I can think of is that he picked it up from one of his teachers at school? Either way, I laughed the first time he said it and promptly reminded him that I am "MOMMY", he said it again the very next sentence.


We're working through some serious teasing between the boys now days. JD is relentless with Cole - he's pushing all of his buttons, all of the time. Cole is slowly learning how to dish it back (with my help of course) and although he's the smaller of the two, not long from now he's going to haul off and club JD, which hopefully will let him know he isn't going to be pushed around.



We're starting to potty train a bit - I'll spare the details but suffice to say that there was a giant note on the kids cubby at school today announcing that "JD went #2 on the potty - hooray". So when I arrived, the kid was covered in stickers and dragged me into the bathroom to check out where he did his business. Toilets and the like have never been high on my discussion list so this is new territory for me. Living with 3 boys, something tells me my modest days are over.


We got the kids first "report cards" today. I must admit, I was a nervous wreck opening them up - having no idea what I would find. I had forgotten that they were coming out last week or I probably would have been nervous going to school today. They both got great reports, I'm proud to say. It seems that they are coming along very well - Cole is still coming out of his shell at school and they are working on that. JD is the life of the place and they find him very entertaining (as do we). I'm such a proud Mamma!


We're in temper tantrum hell with Cole at the moment. Holy cow - I always heard about these jekyl and hyde moments but never imagined what it would really be like. YIKES. All I can say is I hope this is a short phase!


I'm in desperate need of spring - this cold, wet weather is not doing much for my spirit. Once Feb hits - those doldrums kick in full force. We're headed South in April but that just isn't soon enough. Old man winter needs to take a hiatus and let some fresh spring air in - we need these germs out of the house!


On a sad note, I just connected with a friend of a friend tonight who lost a triplet - at the same gestation as Calvin was when I lost him. She lost baby Lindsey Kate - my heart goes out to S. and her family - keep them in your thoughts as they get through this loss and continue the hope for their surviving preemie babies.


Also wanted to share the latest singing skills - apparently they get that ability (or lack there of)from their mother.

Is it him?

Kinda cool story - a couple of days ago, as I was putting away the kids laundry, JD found the yellow memory box in his closet. It's the memory box with all of Calvin's memoirs in it - hospital bracelets, photos, cards, poems, etc. He came running over and said "what's this Mommy" and at first I said, "oh, it's just a yellow box of Mommy's". Then I thought, well, what better time than now to look inside with them. So we did.

Inside the box is a mini beanie baby that was in Calvin's bassinet when he was brought to us after delivery. It's a little grey and white bear type of thing - and just a few inches long. At our hospital, all preemie babies are given a beanie baby which stays with them for their whole hospital stay - both JD and Cole had them too. But Calvin's was a mini one.

When we opened the box, Cole immediately grabbed the little beanie baby and called it "Baby Calvin". For the rest of the morning, Cole would not put this little guy down. He talked to it, carried it and hugged it. My first thought was that it had to go back into the box because I needed to preserve it. But when Cole would not give it up as I pleaded for him to do, I reconsidered and figured, why not let him have it and let it be loved; right? He really liked the little guy and just seemed right to let him run with it.

We left on a roadtrip later that day and he had to bring it with us. He slept with it that night and clenched it all the way home the next day. This morning he had it with him all the way to school. And when he got back in the car after school, it was in his car seat waiting for him. He couldn't wait to get to the car. He tried to bring him into the tub with him too - and we had a hard time explaining that he couldn't get wet.

I dunno - it's probably more of the novelty of a new little stuffed thing for him to carry around. But I would like to think of it as some sort of symbolism of his love for his identical twin brother. I'll never know. But it sure warms my heart to believe that somehow Calvin is smiling down and giving us a reminder that he's always with us. And Cole feels it too.