Micah! (And the Day After...)

This past Monday morning, November 19th, I arrived in my office around 8:30 after my early morning walk.  There were 11 missed calls. Hmm...strange.  Then the phone rang again and I heard Brad say "Woman, where have you been? I guess you don't want to participate in the birth of your grandson!"  Erin's water had just broken.  We were so happy...and so past ready to see that baby's face. He was, after all, 10 days late!!  Micah was born that evening after 9 hours of labor.  I will say again here...Erin is my hero! All are well and settling in at home to a new routine with a newborn.  I am very thankful that my daughter and son-in-law have always let me witness the births of my grandchildren.  God is amazing!!  I will never forget any moment of each birth.  They are all unique!

Madison wanted to show her doll to Micah.

We have THREE grandchildren now??!! Wow!

Micah was about 1 hour old in this pic.

Tres ninos! I love them so much.

Now let's talk about the next day.  I have babysat the big kids many times. But that is quite different than spending the night with them and waking up before daylight to those little voices and fixing breakfast that they hardly touch and trying to get a car seat in the car and getting to the hospital happy and in one piece and halfway clean for pictures.

After getting home and in the bed around midnight, I awoke around 6 a. m. to the sound of Landon talking to himself.  I thought....hurry, hurry...get in the shower before all Gehenna breaks loose! So after a 4 minute shower I got dressed just in time.  Both were out of sorts because of no mommy and daddy.  Didn't eat the pancakes I slaved over from the microwave.  Maddie wanted to see Mommy.  Landon wanted to see Daddy.  I got them dressed in the cute WHITE shirts that mommy had made them for this day.  Loaded up, got down to the car.  Got Maddie in her car seat.  Then I had to load Landon's car seat in my car.  Most people who know me know that I am "spatially challenged"....in other words anything that requires assembly is a huge problem for me.  I got the car seat in and Landon in it.  Whew. Wow, not so tough after all.  We took off and rounded the first corner out of their neighborhood.  I heard "UH OH" and there was Landon totally tipped over. Whoa!! I turned back around, pulled back into their driveway and called Erin and Brad and got instructions again.  Okay. Think I got it.  Got in the car.  Maddie said she had to potty.  Okay, pull back in and take her in to potty. Landon was 'hungy" so I grabbed cookies.  Back out to the car. Gave them the cookies.  Started to back out.  Looked back and there was smeared chocolate dangerously close to that white shirt that Landon had on.  Got out and took his shirt off and just let him wear his jacket.  Maddie, in the meantime, is coughing her head off and crying for mommy.  I tried to calm her as we finally left 45 minutes after we initially got in the car.

I stopped through McDonald's and got them both sweet tea.  Maddie kept coughing as we drove down the highway.  Then I heard... "Grandmommy, I thowed up"....yep...all over that beautiful WHITE big sister shirt and my car seat. Ugh.  I turned around in my seat and then realized what I was doing. Turned back around and narrowly avoided rear-ending the car in front of me. From that point on I just tried to ignore the "thow-up" and paid attention to my driving.  Half an hour later we pulled into the hospital parking lot and met Daddy. Whew!  Had to take Maddie in and wash her shirt down first before seeing the baby.  All's well that ends well. We had a calm visit and the children were fascinated with Micah and so sweet with him.  They fell asleep hard on the way back home and I had a peaceful drive.  Small blessings mean a lot!

Our family is "blessed beyond measure"...I like that phrase. It perfectly describes what I'm feeling this week. And how appropriate for Thanksgiving week!

Now let the Christmas season begin.  I think I'm ready...