Christmas in April
April 11, 2011
Written by Janet Warren
My favorite quote collector, Dorothy Bair, recited this poem to me and I loved it. It was written by the most prolific author in history, Anonymous.
When first he called me sweetheart, My youthful knees grew weak,
and that was topped when I heard wife, for sure, I'd reached my peak.
Until a tiny voice said Mommy, a joy I still recall.
But now, the sound of "Grandma" is the sweetest word of all.
The little princess has arrived! Ivy Noël Heaton, 6 pounds 2 ounces, 20 inches long. Noël is my daughter’s middle name; she was born a week before Christmas. The parents realize Ivy will forever be explaining why her middle name is Noël when she was born in April, but she’ll have to explain about the trema over the e anyway. Even though I was the one who named my daughter Jennifer Noël, I just learned when Ivy was born that the two dots over the e is called a trema and it means that the vowel preceding the e is pronounced separately and not blended into the e. Of course, this will make no sense to you if the paper isn’t able to print the trema. You’ll have to imagine the e with two dots over it. Jennifer (later shortened to Jenni), wanted to be sure Ivy wasn’t named anything on the top 10 list of baby names. Jenni, who was born in 1978, grew up with at least 3 or 4 Jennifers in her classes at school.
Jenni is recuperating, but it’s tough with three-year-old twins who don’t understand why they can’t jump on their post-operative C-section mommy. That’s one of the reasons I am here—I’ll do the heavy lifting until the other grandma comes to take over. We’ve had a bit of jealousy over here too. Hey—last time there were two babies so I got to hold a grandchild anytime I wanted. Oh, and the boys have also been a little jealous. Seth saw his daddy holding Ivy and yelled at him to give mommy her baby back. When Spencer tried to explain Ivy was Mommy and Daddy’s baby, Seth cried, “No, Seth is Daddy’s baby.” It almost broke my heart. This parenting stuff is hard work, which is why being a grandparent is so fun. I get to enjoy the moment without having to worry about the long-term consequences. When I leave, Jenni and Spencer can always say, “We only do that when grandma is here.”
I walked Seth and Noah over to the park yesterday so Jenni could get some much-needed rest. Gone is the beautiful, little bit too warm for me, weather. It was replaced with 70 degrees yesterday. Except for being a little windy, it felt really good. Apparently 70 degrees in Arizona is cold. Adults were at the park dressed in hooded sweatshirts. Wimps. Today, however, was in the 50s and I was wishing I had packed some socks.
I saw a roadrunner a couple of days ago. When I called Mike in Ephrata and told him, he said, “what year?” Mike, Mike, Mike. You have cars on the brain, but I am missing the way you make me look at something in a totally different way. No, I saw the bird like the one who was always driving Wile E. Coyote crazy. I have never seen one that wasn’t animated, but it was obvious it was a roadrunner when it ran past me in the park.
I promised to send a picture of Ivy, and here she is! I can’t help myself, I have to go into grandma mode. She is the most beautiful baby girl I have ever seen (besides my own, of course). Thanks, my Ephrata friends, for letting a semi-old grandma brag.
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