A Visit To Remember

I finally got to see my new grandson yesterday. Kara, Maggie, Emma and I went down in the afternoon and arrived soon after they got home from the hospital.

Nicole came down the hallway with a tiny bundle in her arms. She handed him to me and I saw his beautiful face. His eyes were open and he looked right at me. He was dressed in a fluffy brown teddy bear suit. Adorable! I pulled the hood back so I could see the black hair. I'm guessing it won't be black long. Probably after he rubs most of it off in his crib, it'll grow back lighter, maybe even blondish. Nicole is blond and Justin used to be.

I love holding a squishy, warm baby. There's something about a new baby's smell. So fresh. His skin felt so soft when I rubbed his cheek against mine. He has long fingers and long toes.

Maggie and Emma got to sit on the couch and hold him, with pillows providing the extra holding power. They were thrilled with him. Maggie wants him to come to her birthday in May. We explained that he would be coming around all the time because he was their cousin. Her eyes lit up! The sad thing is that when he's her age (7 ), she'll be almost 15 and probably think he's a pest. She said she didn't think so. Emma agreed. At 14, she'd still love him.

After a couple of hours, we left the little family and headed home. This is going to be difficult for me. I babysat Maggie and Emma when Kara had to return to work. I got to hold and cuddle two little baby girls. I was there when Maggie sat up for the first time, when she rolled over, when she stood up on wobbly legs. Emma arrived a year later and I got to do it all over again. Playing peek-a-boo, dancing around the living room, learning the alphabet song and trying to count to three.

Of course, I'm purposefully forgetting about all those stinky diapers, spit-up and crying jags they went through. I'm forgetting about not getting a finicky eater to eat her smushed up peas. The teething pain, the potty training, the scraped knees and all those other things that can go wrong and mess up a perfectly fine day.

I'm not going to get to do that with Alex.