Friday Favorites 7/18/2014
One of my favorite posts here on Older Eyes – Bud’s Blog is The Grandfather Gene, in which I describe how my apathy about having grandchildren turned to love at first sight the day I held my first grandson, Reed, in my arms nine years ago. The arrival of a second grandson, Maddux, a little more than a year later only made me more of a doting grandfather … or Papa, as my grandkids call me. Believe me, I never thought I’d like being called anything that made me sound so ancient but from their lips, it’s music to my ears. When Maddux was born, we thought he would be the last grandchild. My daughter’s pregnancies were incredibly difficult … she was sick almost continually and needed a PICC line to prevent dehydration. Then we received an unexpected call that she was pregnant again. In spite of how much we enjoyed our grandsons, we had mixed feelings. We weren’t anxious to watch Amy suffer through another pregnancy and they seemed to have their hands full with two kids. We managed to soud excited and, of course, as Amy’s tummy swelled, the excitement became more genuine. Then came the news that it was to be a girl. The excitement was 24-carat genuine.
Savannah was born six years ago today and we were there for the event. Our phone rang at eight in the morning three weeks before the expected due date and it was our daughter. To quote: Somebody needs to get over here and get me to the hospital right now. I’m having this baby! Fortunately, her husband worked close enough to get her to the hospital and Savannah was born shortly after
their arrival. She was a tiny little bundle with a little crown of brownish hair and a slightly jaundiced complexion. She was beautiful but the doctors were concerned about her jaundice and a very round tummy. Tests are just a precaution, they said, but we couldn’t help but worry about the liver problems that sometimes occur in infants. Everything turned out alright and today, she is a beautiful little six-year old She is her Mommy’s kind of girl … she loves having her nails done, playing with dolls and gymnastics. She wants to learn to sew, so we are giving her a half-size sewing machine for her birthday.
Savy … as we call her … was born on the same day as my wife Muri’s Mom, Violet, so my daughter and her husband chose to make her middle name Violet. That really touched Muri. I know it is against the Grandfather Rules to have a favorite granchild and I don’t. I love the three of them to pieces. But since I have only one granddaughter, Savy gets to be my Friday Favorite today. No, not my favorite grandchild but my favorite granddaughter … and, yes, my favorite little girl in the world. If I don’t count her Mom, that is. Happy Birthday, Savy.
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Older Eyes 
July 19, 2014 at 9:03 am
You have some pretty girls, Happy birthday Savy!
July 19, 2014 at 12:06 pm
The depth of your love for your grandchildren is always so apparent in the words you write about them. This one brought me to tears. Savy is a beautiful little girl and lucky to be so adored.
July 27, 2014 at 9:45 am
Like you, I too have three grandchildren -2 boys and 1 girl -and no favorites as I adore all three of them completely! With each of the boys, we knew ahead of time a boy was on the way but with Maya, Mandy had opted not to know the gender beforehand so a girl was a pleasant surprise. The day after she was born I drove myself over to the hospital -which was a “first” for me that summer/fall as it was the first time I had driven that far (only 44 miles) alone as I had been kind of sidelined with chemo treatments as well as lots of physical therapy too for two herniated discs so the driving had been sidelined for much of the year due to that. The first time I saw Maya and held her though, I was definitely smitten by her but there was something else that drew me to her too and I can’t explain it but I felt something pulling at me from inside like it was telling me this little one was going to need a lot of extra TLC and when we learned she had autism, I thought back to that first meeting with her and silently told myself “Ah ha! You were right! Since then, as you know, her little brother came along and with him, again the autism diagnosis but I have to say with each of these kids, I have learned so much more from them that I often become the “student” here -especially in learning how to acquire and utilize patience to the nth degree! Anyway you cut it though, Grandchildren are simply the absolute best things ever put on the face of the earth, aren’t they?