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Strollerderby
My older daughter learned the comfort of Grandma's big bed early on
I’ve occasionally felt that right before I fall asleep and just as soon as I wake up is when I’m most vulnerable. It’s that semi state of consciousness that can leave me feeling as if I’m potential prey for nighttime demons, or, even worse, fodder for daytime villains.
But if you can’t trust your own family when you’re in bed, what do you really have? When I take my girls to go visit my parents, the part we look forward to most is between the sheets. Getting under the covers with my mom and giggling as we watch bad TV, having the girls cuddle with Grandma and belly laugh with Pop Pop — time after time, it’s what makes me tingle with anticipation in the days leading up to a trip, and ache most with longing when we begrudgingly get in the car to go back to the airport
While I’ll always try to teach my girls that life is about the journeys, you can be sure I’ll show them that if they don’t enjoy the destinations, even the most seemingly mundane ones, they’ll be missing out on some of the most intimate, delicious moments. Life is full of love — bed head and morning breath be damned — if you’re sure not to blink and miss it before you close your eyes at night and open them in the morning.
Here are some of my favorite images of my girls, my parents, and their bed:
100 Grandchildren!
Christmas must get really expensive in the Viktor and Aneta Urich household. This couple from Grande Prairie, Canada just welcomed their 100th grandchild! Yes, you did just read “100th grandchild.” How does this math shake out? Especially since the couple are just in their early 60s… Continue reading »
The Boston firefighter with the boy whose life he saved.
It could’ve been bad, really bad. But, thanks to a firefighter and a split-second decision, an amazing rescue took place.
Can you imagine? You are crouched in a window three stories above the ground, holding the love of your life as flames rage at your back?
Your options: wait for help or drop your grandson to what could be his death.
Firefighters and police on the ground are screaming for you to drop your beloved grandbaby into their arms. There is no safety net.
Could you do it? Could you just let go? Continue reading »
"Just drop your dress a little bit and let me see your boobs."
Cutest grandparents ever. Seemingly best marriage ever. Seriously. It’s hard to figure you haven’t seen the couple from Oregon who everyone with an internet connection is talking about.
Just in case you were without power the last few hours, here’s the gist. 86-year-old Bruce Huffman and his wife, Esther, 79, recently bought their very first laptop computer with a built-in webcam.
Last month they sat down to try and make heads or tails out of the thing. They were attempting to make a video with the webcam, something their granddaughter had tried to show them a few days before. But if you’ve ever tried to teach a parent how to Skype or, hell, even just connect to the internet, you know how that little lesson probably ended. So Esther’s trying to figure out how to work the newfangled contraption while Bruce is amusing himself by looking at himself in the image on the computer.
As David Lohr at the Huffington Post writes, “The nearly three minute video captures Bruce making funny faces, singing, burping and at one point, during a moment of levity, he got a little flirtatious with his wife. “See how pretty your hair is?” he said. “Just drop your dress a little bit and see your boobies.”
“I was trying to figure out how to do the videos and didn’t know the thing was actually running,” Esther told The Huffington Post. “All the while, Bruce was kind of amusing himself because he was bored. He was being quite an actor.”
When the couple’s granddaughter later saw the video, she titled it “Web Cam 101 for Seniors” and uploaded it on YouTube. The rest is history. Continue reading »
Grandparents are saving the day for many families financially and as caregivers.
Yes, it happens to be the ten-year anniversary of September 11, but it’s also Grandparents Day, and boy do they deserve to be celebrated more than ever. Many families rely on grandma and grandpa to help make ends meet (and as Madeline wrote recently, it’s not such a bad thing to have grandparents more present in kids’ lives.) But, what happens when the grandparents – and their money- is gone? It seems as parents continue to consume and over-schedule with lessons and sports, grandparents are often helping with the bills. They’ve become the financial safety net in many families that are making less money and having a hard time keeping up. Continue reading »
No training wheels? You didn't know she could do it!
We parents tend to think we’re our kids’ best teacher. But because we live with our little ones day in and out, we might actually not be encouraging them to learn new things at a pace they are capable of.
What their kids know how to do is, well, what they know how to do. Thanksverymuch, moving on!
Enter grandparents (or, if you ask me, babysitters, cousins, older kids). Continue reading »
What if you were never introduced to children until you were this woman's age?
I didn’t become a stepdad until age 36 — a biological father until 37 — which means that, relatively speaking, I was a bit late to fatherhood. Like anything else, being an older dad has both advantages and disadvantages. As I prepare for the arrival of my fifth child (whom I’ve taken to calling Grand Finale), anxiety has pushed some of the disadvantages to the fore. I constantly wonder how I’ll find the energy to tend to an infant amidst all the other daily things that my 41-year-old body will still be required to do.
But behind those anxious thoughts exists a confidence I often forget about — one that comes only with age. Because while the physicality of parenting may favor the young, recognizing and interpreting the ways in which children enrich our lives is something more easily accomplished by the wise. And wisdom only comes with age.
Which is why I was so taken by a piece I read today by Sandy Boucher. For she never had children of her own, and only discovered them for the first time in her capacity as the gay grandmother of four. And I found her words to be very wise, indeed.
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
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