Welcome Camden

I have become a grandmother to three as of last Saturday. The most amazing part of these grandkids is just how much you love them. After having Colby, I wondered if I would be able to love other grand kids as much but having added Taylee two years ago and now Camden, the shocking part is you can actually experience this much love and not explode. It's fun to see your own kids become parents. My son who will always be my baby even towering above me, holds this tiny boy and I know the love and wonder that he feels. There is also so much love and appreciation for the beautiful girl that my son fell in love with, that she would go through all the pain and discomfort of a pregnancy to make this beautiful boy for all of us to love. They will be such fine parents just as my daughter and her husband are to my first two grandkids. I do feel so blessed to have the opportunity to grandparent these incredible children. I'm glad I had the best grandparents who showed me just how it is done. I hope I can do as well.

Each year at Christmas I write a Christmas poem. I was a little slow getting it done. I usually send it in my Christmas cards to my sister, my dad and my aunts. So I will post it here since they are my primary readers and it's fitting for this topic.

Christmas Gifts 2011

Now there are three,
growing in various stages of new.
Each resemble a memory of the past;
the dimple in the chin of one grandma,
violet eyes of another, peaked lips,
soft absent eyebrows puckered, lifted, frowning
in such familiar ways.

Colby arrived almost nine years ago,
wide-eyed and unexpected,
shaping the future by making each of us more.
He borrowed features of a childhood face,
the slim body of my father,
along with his gift of social escaping from every pore.
Breathes an ease of interaction that amazes us all.

Taylee grows like an appendage to her mother,
stealing her very looks from the blue eyes
to the hair curling down her back.
She worships her big brother
while he encourages her outside her shy self
to dance in his warm shadow,
teaching her all the words she will need to know.

Camden, baby of my baby
arrives on this day of a distant grandfather
who surely must have chosen him from the rest,
appearing to an audience of adoring family,
round cheeks and rose petal lips,
he sucks on hands and fingers,
entertains us with his magic
while his father becomes more the man
he knows this boy will need him to be.

I have it all dear Santa
each healthy little being
along with the gift of another year
to watch them grow towards who they will become
occupy a place in my heart so big
it feels like I will burst trying to contain
all this expansive love,
a love I could not have imagined
until they became mine.