The Trip South

The road trip with the weary 10 year old van with no air-conditioning in 90* weather was a success! I did not need to call AAA, I did not need to stop a drive-by tourist and ask for help along the way, I did not call any of my 11 married children, 2 single sons, or even my daughter with a boyfriend who is promising her a ring!! NOPE! Not me and my van, we needed nobody at all, just that car radio,my windows rolled down and an occasional cup of McDonald's new and improved coffee!!



Motivation was strong-I had not seen my bobbing beauties since March at their 2 year birthday party where Elmo came to life before I had a chance to say Sesame Street! Happily, when I arrived after these 10 hours on the road, the little sweeties didn't care about Elmo at all and Dolls Baby Caroline and Baby Abigail have taken his place. I was a clearly called 'Grammy' and they took to me after only a few hours of grinning and bribing.

Grandchildren are my current favorite topic of conversation, but I have noticed that rarely does another grandmother ask about someone else's babies. I haven't completely figured the politics of this out yet, since Eliot is a mere 7 years old, but I think it may be becoming clear. Recently I heard Democratic Presidential candidate-to- be Barak Obama say he was raised by his single grandmother and she was the most important person in his young life. Clear as Saran Wrap I realized that all of these grandmothers are potential future Presidential Hopefuls Acceptance Speeches waiting to happen!! They must remain loyal to their grandchild until the time is ripe for his or her(now that Hillary has made it an unremarkable event) candidacy!
Asking about MY grandchildren may be cause for mixed messages!!


In the meantime, I also have noted that since I have 10 (ten) grandchildren, women in particular sigh with great relief once this statistic is mentioned. It seems, and I almost missed it during the course of my children giving birth , in particular in 2006 when 4 daughters had 6 children in the same year, the more grandchildren there are, the less stress you cause people!! They don't NEED to ask the names and ages of the kids because clearly you have more than your fair share and certainly you can't even recall the names of the latest ones, let alone their birth dates and ages. Heaven Forbid you should be audacious enough to remember Their grandchildren and inquire about them by name!

All this was to say that when I drove to North Carolina to visit Isabel and Ava, desperate to hold them in my achingly empty arms after a long 5 months since I had seen them, barely a clamor was made when I returned as to how the trip was, how much had my grand babies grown, did I have recent pictures? etc...! I felt the reality sharply this afternoon at work when I asked my co-working friend how her trip to see her only nephew had been last week. She gave intimate details and promised me pictures to see, and smiled radiantly and readied to depart, as if I had not mentioned more than once how I was similarly excited to see my twin granddaughters on the trip to North Carolina last week,sharing the idea that we could compare notes upon our return. Hmmm, it would seem she forgot I went.


The joy of Blogging is that I can tell someone somewhere that those two little sweethearts in North Carolina are as unique and delightful as any Grammy could
imagine.The hours on the highway, sitting alone in high volume hot traffic as I crawled around Washington DC , snapping random photos as I went by impressive monuments very far away,(see it?)
was worth every second to hear them say 'come here Grammy'. Listening to Isabel recite the alphabet to me saying 'Elmo Pee' when we got quickly to LMNOP, then grinning madly as if it were our best kept secret in the world! or Ava saying to me, 'let me see dat picture Grammy' when I posed her for yet one more picture to take home with me, these were the moments I drove for. After all, the pictures are my memories, the pictures are the tangible pieces of these babies that I can touch and hold when my arms feel so empty, alone watching the Democratic Convention and realizing that maybe it will be Isabel that will tell America her Grammy was special or Ava as somebody's choice for Vice President.
Now that I am thinking of it, Eliot has that somber yet intelligent way about thinking things through, he is a very smart 7 year old...and Simon, well anyone who knows anything can see he will go far with that sassy sense of humor and sly little grin , ...and Jesse, oh my is he ever the smart one with 2 sisters below him and 2 brothers older than him -he is already learning to be an independent thinker. Nora has the power at 3 to keep 3 brothers at bay so certainly she is a contender for the Presidency! and Bianca , well, Bianca is amazing at 22 months, let alone as she grows into a woman. I have never seen anyone so stubborn at such a young age, and that can be a good thing.


Ethan is charming and quiet, rarely getting riled up at age 2, the temperament of his dad, the Independence of his mommy.

Aidan is so well loved at 21 months and so gentle in spirit we need a President of his calibre,or perhaps Evelyn can be President and Aidie can be her Vice president because they really work well as a team.




Suddenly I realized another important fact and I almost missed it! I was dreaming of my 10 grandchildren in the future, seeing how easily their names flowed from my mind onto paper, ages, faces, dates of birth as if by magic, when before my eyes came the faces and ages and birthdates of my children! I was blessed with 7(seven) and now 4 are married so I consider 4 more to be mine as well, and none of them is even old enough , by typical standards to be President yet! There is still time for my children to proclaim to the world that their MOM was the wisest person they knew, the one who inspired them for better things, the one to whom they turn when life gets complicated...oh my, so many possibilities are ahead. I believe the odds are definitely in my favor , so no wonder nobody wants to ask how MY Children/grandchildren are. Jealousy. That's all it is.