she's got talent

Sometimes I wonder how my car can possibly get so messy. Then I turn around and see this happy face who helps me. How could this much chocolate come from a small chocolate chip cookie?

grandma

Two weeks ago Ruby, my mom and I visited my grandparents. I had not seen them for quite sometime and I was very grateful my mom had me go. It was a great visit. This is my cute little grandpa. He has always been a very loving man and it was so great to see how quickly Ruby took to him and started playing and flirting. Being a mom now, I loved seeing Grandpa talk like a duck to make her laugh and be silly in the same ways he did with me. Ruby, my mom, and her mom. Ruby wasn't exactly thrilled to have her photo taken and wanted to get back to playing with grandpa. Doesn't my mom look fabulous!

Since seeing my grandparents, Grandma took a fall and her health has gone down hill until she passed away this afternoon. Family relationships with grandma haven't always been smooth sailing but I'm glad it ended on a good note. There are a few things I will always remember about Grandma.

• Whenever I had some sort of success with school or whatnot, she and Grandpa were always proud of me and they would always tell me.


• Grandma was a fabulous story-teller. No one could top her stories and as crazy as they were, they were always fun to hear. Whether it was her crawling through battlefields while she was in labor with my mother or telling Jeff about the brothels in Amsterdam within the first 5 minutes of meeting him, her stories were great.


• Grandma was one of a kind and a true original. She did things her way which takes guts. In the temple, just after Jeff and I got married, the sealer had Jeff and I kiss for the first time as a married couple. Grandma responded with clapping and yelling "Yipee" in the very silent room. Who could help but laugh?


• Grandma was a fashion DIVA! Only my grandma could shop at the mall at 5-7-9 with the teenagers and pull off wearing a lavender leather vest with polyester pants. She had style!


• Grandma came here to the US with her small family so we all could have a better life. I think she would have much rather gone back to her friends, family, culture and way of life in the Netherlands. But she came here and I'm grateful for that. Love you Grandma.

I think the hardest part of losing Grandma is Grandpa. My heart aches for him losing his long-time companion. He has been so devoted to her for years and now his mind is starting to go, making her death more tragic for him. But let's end this post on a happy note. My grandma isn't uncomfortable or in pain. Everyone seems to be at peace. And my dear sweet grandpa is still dear and sweet. Here's a little video of him and Ruby keeping all of us utterly entertained with a few cups.

a hair-raising, tooth-losing experience

On Saturday morning if you would have asked how many teeth Ruby has, I would have told you eleven. However Saturday night she was toddling around in the backyard carrying a water bottle, tripped and fell, hitting her front, top tooth on the water bottle. Now she has ten. Her chompers that used to feature a very toothy smile, has since gone a bit red-neck.

Initially we thought she had knocked it out and swallowed it in all the commotion of blood and spit- yuck- since we couldn't the tooth anywhere. Today she visited the dentist for the first time who also thought she had cleanly knocked out the tooth. But with an x-ray- that she wasn't too pleased about- we found out that she had actually jammed the tooth straight up, back into her gums. ouch. So now we're doing the 'wait and see' thing waiting to see if it will start to come down again or if the contact sport killed it and it will have to be 'extracted'- yuck and ouch. So here's hoping she will get her baby front tooth... again.

It's times like that when I feel totally unqualified to be a mom. Yes I dealt reasonably well with it, but at those times I want an EMT, Nurse, Fire fighter, Doctor, Dentist, and full staff of trained professionals including a Gymnast, a Tight-End or a Wide Receiver on staff that can quickly swoop in and catch Ruby. I need to wrap that kid in bubble wrap so that when she thinks she can climb her dollhouse or rocking moose, she can bounce back a bit. Not entirely reasonable, but it doesn't mean I still don't want it. Thankfully I have good family and friends that fill most of those job descriptions, including a husband giving blessings, one sister that happened to be her for the collision and another who tagged along to the dentist to help distract Ruby -and let's be honest, distract me- from what was going on. But just in case anyone knows of an out-of-work Wide Receiver, let me know. Maybe if the NFL lock out continues, I'll be in luck.