I have a niece named Emma, after my grandma. We also have grand nieces named Victoria after beloved relative and Samantha & Sabrina — maybe after bewitched?
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S has a friend whose family named all 3 of their daughters names that could be either gender (like Casey, Jamie, etc). That is exactly why it was done.
GD has an unusual middle name (family last name) that sounds like one of the names heard here on the playground. She may eventually choose to be called by that name.
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Maybe we need a thread for names. I’ll start one.
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Too funny - Casey was my first choice girls name and Jamie was my first choice boys name, but we nixed both due to gender confusion!
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Tonight I went to the Broadway play Frozen. It was really really good.
Why am I posting in the Grandparent thread? Because the little girls were soooo cute, all dressed as Anna’s and Elsa’s. At the beginning they welcomed all those for whom this was a first broadway play, and the mother of the little girl (probably 3 years old) must have whispered “that’s you” and she just cheered and clapped. They were all so cute, and so excited. We all wanted to sing along to Let it Go and I really think they should have played that in the encore and let us all rip it!
I can’t wait to take a grandchild to a broadway event. Tonight I had to settle for my sister which was lovely too.
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Little Miss Mess graduated out of her Nuna basket style car seat into a regular car seat. She sprouted a bit recently and became too tall for the basket… still ok weight wise. We had to scramble to buy her a big girl car seat. Thankfully, Nordstrom sent one right away!
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I love having a car seat in my car. Nordstrom usually has a nice selection of higher end seats on sale during the anniversary sale next month.
We celebrated a belated Father’s Day yesterday with a picnic at the rose garden in our city. 3 out of 4 grandchildren, we missed the one who doesn’t live close. The 2 year old loved running around and the 2 babies are now old enough to interact with each other.
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My DIL and best friend took their daughters to it at the Kennedy Center. I have a photo that is just precious. Her face! 
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This is the week that school is over but day camp hasn’t started. D has to work, so brought the kids to our beach house so I could watch them. Day Two: Yesterday we did beach which is exhausting with littles (I know I did it before, but I was MUCH younger then.) Today we did grocery shopping, backyard wading pool, then toys and activity books in the afternoon. My house looks like a tornado hit a toy store. Thankfully D is taking the kids down to the beach for pre-dinner playing. Sitting here with coffee doing nothing for a moment.
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It is exhausting, isn’t it.
S1, DIL and GD age 5 and GS age 2 1/2 were with us at our house from Wednesday until yesterday, Monday. I love them to the moon and back, but I was glad to see them go. I’ve been working for two days to get the house (and me!) back in shape.
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H and I say this after nearly every time we babysit our GDs. We even feel the difference between babysitting our older GD almost five years ago and her little sister now. The younger one is a little whirlwind and a daredevil who really keeps us on our toes. We thought her big sister was pretty active, but she also enjoyed quiet times with books.
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We look forward to Christmas/New Year’s at DD/SIL/Gkids’ home - repeat from last year. It is helpful with both DD/SIL work demands while older kids are off a long period from school, and it is a fun time. I get extra learning activities in, and SIL is very interested in modeling successful things with the kids with learning. In the fall GS1 will advance to K (he was in full day 4K at that school last year), and GD1 will advance to first grade. Since Jan 2024, I had a 4 week stint and a 2 week stint (both times flying in) helping out while SIL was gone, first for training/Army promotion, and 2nd time helping his parents out-of-state downsize in preparation for their move (his dad has progressing Parkinson’s and mom has medical issues too). I told DD that it makes sense for when I fly in to stay 2 weeks. Their summer routine is a little easier as all 4 children go to the daycare (with older two on summer program there). DD was able to have her work time start 1/2 hour early and she gets off 1/2 hour earlier - so they have time to stop at the public library weekly near the daycare too. I look forward to reinforcing what GS1 is doing with kindergarten and will do activities with GS2 who turns 3 in August. GD1 is ‘on fire’ for learning/school/reading/math. Her standardized test scores show her doing really well. Wonderful that the children play well together, and are also sensitive to GD2 - who just turned one. GD2 loves watching the others and bangs around with the kitchen play stuff and the other toys in their playroom area. GD2 learned how to go up and down the stairs (under lots of observation at first) so did not have to put up gates – we close doors to keep her out of certain areas.
What is nice is that it is all under their roof, so child proofed and their routine. Easy for DH and me to plug in where we are needed. Also, older kids can ‘run and fetch’ things for us and be useful while saving our energy.
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Got a cuisinart ice cream maker (the 1.5 quart one) and tried it out tonight. Wow- easy and very good. I’m going to bring it with me when we visit the almost 3 and 5 year old grand daughters next month. I know they like to make cookies and since this only takes 15 minutes in the final steps I think they will like it.
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GS (19 months) took his mom’s iPhone out of her purse yesterday and pressed the video-call button, accidentally calling me. When I answered, he said “Bash” (my cat) over and over, despite his mom repeatedly prompting him to say “Hi Grandma”. He clearly knows who I was and that Bash lives with me, but he only wanted to see the cat, not me. I can’t decide if ought to be insulted or not. (joking!)
GS has grown so much in the 3 months since I last saw him in person. He’s turned into a toddler! His vocabulary has exploded. He’s using sentences. And he’s always seems to have a new set of scrapes and/or bruises from trying to keep up with his older sisters.
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Counting the days (22) until I have all 3 grandchildren in the same room!ll
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I spent 5 days with my son and his family (kids are 5,3 and 1). I had a great time and escaped without pink eye that was going around. I watched the kids while they work and watching all 3 by myself is tough. Luckily the 3 year old had preschool 2 days and the 5 year old had camp 2 days. My daughter is due with her second (her son is 2) any day. She lives close so we are on call to watch the 2 year old.
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Little kid reported that Little Miss Mess (14 month old) helped her dad to unload the dishwasher! She handed him forks and spoons one by one so he could put them away and then handled dinner size plates, too! 
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GD1 when she was young - probably a bit older than 14 months, did a soda can moving exercise, where she would take a can from where they were stored, put it on the kitchen table, and go get another one. SIL videoed this ‘work effort’. GD1 and GS1 are both now great ‘fetchers’ of things we need, and sometimes GS2 as well.
GD2 makes a beeline to the open dishwasher (she just turned one but has done so for months with crawling) and also loves getting into all the lower cupboards and the pantry – the pantry has double doors (which we have one of those plastic babyproof latches across). GD2 was making a beeline to the pantry, so I shut the pantry doors and put the latch across, but then DD1 needed something out of the pantry right away, and as I opened it – there was GS2 (who is 2 1/2) standing in the dark pantry (he didn’t make any noise, it kind of happened quickly - and I didn’t see him in there when I closed the door).
The grandkids (4 of them, now age 1 - 6) play a lot in their play area with the play kitchen cabinet set and their accessories.
I thought DD/SIL should not let their kids handle the TV remote, and they learned a lesson – GD1 while very young, ended up ordering a $20 online movie.
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BTDT, only it wasn’t a TV remote, Twin B bought a couple of audiobooks using the Alexa.
The twins have been using Alexa to play music and games since they could first enunciate clearly enough for the software to understand them.
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