An open letter to new long-distance grandmas

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An open letter to new long-distance grandmas

Dear heartbroken long-distance grandma,

First, let me say congratulations on your grandma status! Whether you just learned you'd soon have a grandchild, a newborn grand recently arrived, or one or more grandkiddos have long been part of your heart, you are a grandmother and that's worth celebrating... again and again.

Today, though, I offer my condolences that your grandmother status carries, or soon will, the long-distance modifier. I know how hard that is on you. I know because I am you — a long-distance grandma.

I've been a long-distance grandma a while, with hundreds of miles separating me from my sweet ones ever since the initial "You're going to be a grandma!" announcement nearly ten years ago. Considering the survival strategies I've learned the hard way...

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Wherein Grandma's FaceTime game's gone weak

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Wherein Grandma's FaceTime game's gone weak

Megan and I have been on opposite schedules of late, especially in terms of scheduling a FaceTime rendezvous with my grandsons. She and the boys are busy with the start of the school year and all that goes along with that as well as baseball for Brayden and flag football for Camden. I've been busy building a better blog.

When Camden sent me a spidorpion in the mail, then Brayden followed a few days later with kiddo correspondence to Gramma of his own, I knew a few minutes of FaceTime to thank each for their snail mail was out of the question. So upon receiving Camden's mail, I sent Megan a text message video to and for Cam. I did the same

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On spidorpions and refrigerator art

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On spidorpions and refrigerator art

My grandsons live in the desert, where creepy crawly things reside, too.

Most of those creepy crawly things — primarily scorpions and lizards but sometimes other icky things — though horrifying to me, are merely common sightings for Brayden, Camden, and Declan. Nothing to write home, I mean, write Gramma about.

The boys — and Megan — recently encountered a critter like none they'd encountered before. One they weren't even sure what it was. First Megan, then Brayden, then Camden described...

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Rapid recovery

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late night phone call

Grandmothers and others know few things prompt panic in a parent's or grandparent's heart quite like a late-night phone call or text from a child. Even an adult child.

I received one such scary communication from my daughter Megan — mom to my grandsons — last Friday night. Granted, it was only 8:30 in the evening, 7:30 her time, but that's not a time my long-distance daughter and I typically talk or text. So my heart indeed flip-flopped a few times upon hearing her ringtone.

Camden hurt himself, she told me.

Long story short: The rambunctious kid had been rambunctioning about (my word) and demonstrating to big brother Brayden how awesome he was at holding his breath. Resulting in Camden — briefly — passing out. And landing, unconscious, on his head on the hard stone tile flooring found throughout much of their house. A tremendous goose egg on his head served as reward for the frightening feat.

Thankfully Megan's sister-in-law is a pediatrician, so...

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As the season slips away: 6 summery somethings I still want to do

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summer sunset

Kids are back in school. Pumpkin-flavored coffees pour forth from the coffee shops. Halloween candy and costumes line the shelves at the stores.

It seems fall has arrived full force despite the calendar still showing summer on the schedule.

As September 21 — the official final day of summer despite what the retailers profess — creeps closer, I'm mulling over the summer sorts of stuff I meant to do and didn't. A few stand out that I still want to do, still hope to do, before I can no longer...

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Practicing what I preach

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Practicing what I preach

Practicing what I preach

I do my best to practice what I preach here on Grandma's Briefs. Last week I preached all about ways grandparents can help school-bound grandkiddos. One of the suggestions in the post is to give grandkids a BTS care package of sorts (with an outfit or pajamas) before school begins.

It just so happens that the day that post was published, I received a text message from Megan with a picture of my grandsons thanking me for the BTS care package i had sent them, which included a few school supplies plus an outfit for each boy. (Shorts and tees that I thought were cute as can be for school but would work just fine as jammies if the boys considered my selections not cool for school.) Declan — who's only three and spends his days with Mommy, not at school — got a package just like his brothers, too, because, well, how could the cutie not?

grandson heading back to school
Declan, Camden, and Brayden grinning big for Gramma!

The package arrived just in time! Today Camden starts...

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Pool time with PawDad

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My grandsons have a swimming pool in the back yard of their home in the desert. Though I've had the pleasure of splishing and splashing with them in it a time or two, Jim — who due to job demands hasn't been able to visit the boys as often as I — last saw the pool when it was in progress and merely a big ol' hole in the ground.

Jim's perspective on the pool changed this past Sunday.

My husband and I took a quick trip south to see the boys and their parents over the weekend, and Jim, er, PawDad finally got to join the boys in their pool. And in their hot tub, too.

pool time with PawDad

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Jak sports a 'stache

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I'm not sure whether to attribute it to his determination to keep up with his two older brothers or to the limited amount of time I've had with Jak in his toddler years compared to how often I saw Bubby and Mac in theirs. But — gee whiz! — it sure seems to me my youngest grandson is maturing So. Much. Faster. than his brothers did.

A recent share from Megan confirms my assertion: The not yet three-year-old already sports a mustache.

toddler mustache with pudding

Okay, okay. You got me. It's obviously not...

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Ah-choo: Grandson under attack

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When my girls were little — even when they were big — they never experienced allergy issues of any sort. Never. So I don't know what it's like to have a child with allergies. I don't ever really even consider allergies and such.

Well, I didn't consider allergies and such... until my bonus grandson Bud entered our world. Bud is allergic to gluten, nuts, animals, and all sorts of other stuff. So I am a bit more cognizant of the issue than pre-Bud.

Bud is not a blood relative, though, so perhaps allergies run in his family.

Bubby, on the other hand, is a blood relative, and allergies do not run in our family. So getting a text from Megan with the following photo — noting "allergy attack" as the explanation for my eldest grandson's miserable condition — floored me:

boy with allergies

So sad!

That's just the way it is for most kids in...

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