Hello All.
As I sit here late on a Friday night, after spending the morning and afternoon with Anne and the lovely baby Max, I am thinking about the power of one person. One little special person to a number of people that multiplies exponentially, as we text and share and smile at the arrival of a new life and all that means. After just two weeks on earth, this one little boy has added depth and joy and love to so many....
Imagine... if we can all continue to think like that, and embrace the joy of each life....all that that would bring.....
Until next time.
Pam
Friday, December 14, 2012
Friday, November 30, 2012
Finally :)
Hello All!
Well, today begins a brand brand new chapter...
Max William Martins arrived at 9:29 am....weighing in at 8lbs. 11oz. and measuring 53 centimeters..
Needless to say....he is loved beyond words.....
Mom and baby are doing wonderfully.
Until next time, and with great joy!
Pam
Well, today begins a brand brand new chapter...
Max William Martins arrived at 9:29 am....weighing in at 8lbs. 11oz. and measuring 53 centimeters..
Needless to say....he is loved beyond words.....
Mom and baby are doing wonderfully.
Until next time, and with great joy!
Pam
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Here we go!
Morning All!
A beautiful new person will arrive either late tonight or sometime tomorrow....Anne and her husband Patrick and their doctor have decided tonight is the night...enough already baby...time to see the world!
A cosmic shift....
Until next time,
Pam
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
waiting...
Hello All!
Waiting....we are playing the waiting game...
Will post again after the new baby decides to make her/his appearance....darn kids...they let you know right from the beginning that you are only sort of in charge!
Until the baby arrives,
Pam
p.s. Anne's business is back up and running...am thankful for that...hey...how about everyone checking out Saxelby Cheesemongers... and place an order....as my surrogate son Kevin would say "That would be great!"
Waiting....we are playing the waiting game...
Will post again after the new baby decides to make her/his appearance....darn kids...they let you know right from the beginning that you are only sort of in charge!
Until the baby arrives,
Pam
p.s. Anne's business is back up and running...am thankful for that...hey...how about everyone checking out Saxelby Cheesemongers... and place an order....as my surrogate son Kevin would say "That would be great!"
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Resilience...aka how not to be a WIMP
Hi All,
This will probably be a shorter post...
I have been thinking about Resilience. I have capitalized it because I think that makes it look more important, stand out..
In this past week one of our children has had to deal with a major set back. She has a business in New York that suffered a lot of damage due to "Super Storm Sandy". As a parent, you think about what you can do when your kids are going through challenges, and the best answer I think is support. However that looks, your physical presence, your words on the phone or email, texts etc.
During this time of Anne evaluating and assessing what is needed, I have to say, I am proud of her. Of course as a parent, and if you are someone who chooses to read these posts, you are probably quite involved in your children's lives. My husband and I had a goal to make, or I guess help, our kids develop life skills that would serve them well, in all of life... the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Life does not often present Nirvana, yet life is often really good. In my opinion, if we as parents are able to help our kids grow into resilient adults, we have done them a great service.
Resilience, as defined by my computer dictionary is:
"the power to recover readily from adversity"
And then, to take it one step further, help our kids be able to demonstrate and practice Resiliency...
Resiliency.....defined as " the ability to spring back".
As I continue to go through life now as a parent of adults, I think those 2 qualities are the best gift we can give our children....in any age or stage.
I can still be quite a wimp....but at least they aren't!
Until next time,
Pam
This will probably be a shorter post...
I have been thinking about Resilience. I have capitalized it because I think that makes it look more important, stand out..
In this past week one of our children has had to deal with a major set back. She has a business in New York that suffered a lot of damage due to "Super Storm Sandy". As a parent, you think about what you can do when your kids are going through challenges, and the best answer I think is support. However that looks, your physical presence, your words on the phone or email, texts etc.
During this time of Anne evaluating and assessing what is needed, I have to say, I am proud of her. Of course as a parent, and if you are someone who chooses to read these posts, you are probably quite involved in your children's lives. My husband and I had a goal to make, or I guess help, our kids develop life skills that would serve them well, in all of life... the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Life does not often present Nirvana, yet life is often really good. In my opinion, if we as parents are able to help our kids grow into resilient adults, we have done them a great service.
Resilience, as defined by my computer dictionary is:
"the power to recover readily from adversity"
And then, to take it one step further, help our kids be able to demonstrate and practice Resiliency...
Resiliency.....defined as " the ability to spring back".
As I continue to go through life now as a parent of adults, I think those 2 qualities are the best gift we can give our children....in any age or stage.
I can still be quite a wimp....but at least they aren't!
Until next time,
Pam
Friday, October 19, 2012
Asking...
Hello!
Last night I went to a Skin of Steel event.
I am revisiting a summer post.
I ask everyone to take a minute and think about how important your skin is.
Check out Skin of Steel.
Make a donation to help set up a tissue bank right here in Chicago.
Tissue banks for breast cancer changed the treatment, outcome and survival rates for that disease.
Everyone has skin, not just women.
www.skinofsteel.org
It matters. Your donation could be the one to make this happen.
Do it.
Until next time, Pam
Last night I went to a Skin of Steel event.
I am revisiting a summer post.
I ask everyone to take a minute and think about how important your skin is.
Check out Skin of Steel.
Make a donation to help set up a tissue bank right here in Chicago.
Tissue banks for breast cancer changed the treatment, outcome and survival rates for that disease.
Everyone has skin, not just women.
www.skinofsteel.org
It matters. Your donation could be the one to make this happen.
Do it.
Until next time, Pam
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Phase .01
Hello!
So to begin the next phase of this blogging attempt of mine.
First, I want to put a disclaimer on here that my grammar and spelling, although I will attempt to be correct, may not always be. I have discovered that although I feel I have become more able with this whole computer thing, I still have more that I don't know to learn. Yes, I am sure that there are many tools, links, apps, I have no idea about, and so far, for the last 56 years, I have been fine without them. I will continue to attempt update my skills, yet I do not have a deadline for that accomplishment.
As I said in my last blog, already a whole month ago, I am going to try a new format idea. Maybe format is not the right word, but a new way of sharing. I had to first ask all my kids, and by all I mean 3, if it was okey dokey with them if I actually talked about them in this next attempt, and they said "Yes". We will see if that stands... :) I have of course shared some stories about them throughout the past 3 years in my blogging, but here I want to design this next part as a "How to Grow a Family" idea, and all that comes with that...all that my husband and I know of what we have done and shared and learned up to this point. And, we are at a new point...we are about to become Grandparents for the first time. A new chapter, a new chapter for our whole family, each and every one. Bill and I will become Grandparents, and the main character is yet to be announced...we do not know who this baby is, or even if it is a he or she. Anne and Patrick are going to be parents for the first time, I suppose they technically already are, or there would be no baby on the brink of arrival. My other children Megan, and Bill and Bill's fiancee Megan, are about to become aunts and an uncle....a big new chapter for all of them too! I know I had a phone conversation with my daughter, Megan, yesterday and she was informing me that her goal is to be a big player in this new person's life. When I talked with Anne today, she said Bill and his Megan are excited about babysitting. And, Bill and I are renting an apartment in New York for 6 weeks, at the request of Anne and Patrick, to be there. To help them, to be right down the street instead of a plane ride away...so here we go!
I titled this Blog Phase .01 because I thought it was clever ( self serving of me) and thought it described the facts. Anne and Patrick and all of us in this family are about to be part of a big new adventure, yet we are all still in the waiting phase. I also thought about calling this blog a number of other things, like
"No Clue", "Blissful Ignorance", "What Have We Done", "No One Told Me", you get the idea.
I had the chance today to have a lovely conversation with Anne, one of the main players in this new endeavor, about how she was feeling and what she was doing. She shared with me that she was talking recently to a number of new Moms who took some time off before the baby arrived to settle and get organized and catch their breath before the baby arrived. I told her I thought that was an idea that held a lot of merit. Yet, knowing my daughter, she will decide for herself what makes sense, and how these last few weeks of waiting will look for her. I told her what I thought....that was it. She gets to make up her own mind.
And, so we come to the part of the blog that I think really gets to it. When you are expecting your first child, you really, and I mean really, have NO CLUE about what your life will become quite shortly. I know that I shared a story in one of my previous blogs, about the first night we brought Anne home from the hospital. Every time we brought her into our bedroom to feed her, we thought it would be a great idea to change her diaper on our bed, and it took us 6 times to realize that maybe that was not a good idea, as she peed all over our bed each and every time. REALLY? Yes, really...you would have thought that given the fact that Bill and I both have college degrees and are, in my opinion, pretty smart people, that we did not need that big of a learning curve, yet we did! I laugh now and love to share that story, and it also speaks to the heart of parenting, trial and error.
No one truly knows what it is like to be a parent until it actually happens. I know that Bill and I had a rough idea of what we were hoping to be and do as parents. I know Anne and Patrick have talked about it. I love them both, yet know although the talk is good, important and necessary, all it is right now is talk. Becoming a parent is an action verb. Parent is a noun, and parenting is a verb. When we become parents, we spend the rest of our lives in the action verb phase. I know that at 56 I am still in that phase, and love it.
I told Anne today as we were talking, that although you can imagine what holding your baby will be like, you can not anticipate the unadulterated joy and unconditional love you will feel and have once you get to actually meet your baby. I shared with her again, how I felt holding her. Soon, I will get to hear her version of that unique, life changing event. I can't wait....
Let the games begin..... I am off to buy a crib and and some other new baby bed that connects right to Anne and Patrick's for the baby's first months.......and attend a Baby Shower in New York, where I am the Grandmother to be....WOW!
Until next time,
Pam
So to begin the next phase of this blogging attempt of mine.
First, I want to put a disclaimer on here that my grammar and spelling, although I will attempt to be correct, may not always be. I have discovered that although I feel I have become more able with this whole computer thing, I still have more that I don't know to learn. Yes, I am sure that there are many tools, links, apps, I have no idea about, and so far, for the last 56 years, I have been fine without them. I will continue to attempt update my skills, yet I do not have a deadline for that accomplishment.
As I said in my last blog, already a whole month ago, I am going to try a new format idea. Maybe format is not the right word, but a new way of sharing. I had to first ask all my kids, and by all I mean 3, if it was okey dokey with them if I actually talked about them in this next attempt, and they said "Yes". We will see if that stands... :) I have of course shared some stories about them throughout the past 3 years in my blogging, but here I want to design this next part as a "How to Grow a Family" idea, and all that comes with that...all that my husband and I know of what we have done and shared and learned up to this point. And, we are at a new point...we are about to become Grandparents for the first time. A new chapter, a new chapter for our whole family, each and every one. Bill and I will become Grandparents, and the main character is yet to be announced...we do not know who this baby is, or even if it is a he or she. Anne and Patrick are going to be parents for the first time, I suppose they technically already are, or there would be no baby on the brink of arrival. My other children Megan, and Bill and Bill's fiancee Megan, are about to become aunts and an uncle....a big new chapter for all of them too! I know I had a phone conversation with my daughter, Megan, yesterday and she was informing me that her goal is to be a big player in this new person's life. When I talked with Anne today, she said Bill and his Megan are excited about babysitting. And, Bill and I are renting an apartment in New York for 6 weeks, at the request of Anne and Patrick, to be there. To help them, to be right down the street instead of a plane ride away...so here we go!
I titled this Blog Phase .01 because I thought it was clever ( self serving of me) and thought it described the facts. Anne and Patrick and all of us in this family are about to be part of a big new adventure, yet we are all still in the waiting phase. I also thought about calling this blog a number of other things, like
"No Clue", "Blissful Ignorance", "What Have We Done", "No One Told Me", you get the idea.
I had the chance today to have a lovely conversation with Anne, one of the main players in this new endeavor, about how she was feeling and what she was doing. She shared with me that she was talking recently to a number of new Moms who took some time off before the baby arrived to settle and get organized and catch their breath before the baby arrived. I told her I thought that was an idea that held a lot of merit. Yet, knowing my daughter, she will decide for herself what makes sense, and how these last few weeks of waiting will look for her. I told her what I thought....that was it. She gets to make up her own mind.
No one truly knows what it is like to be a parent until it actually happens. I know that Bill and I had a rough idea of what we were hoping to be and do as parents. I know Anne and Patrick have talked about it. I love them both, yet know although the talk is good, important and necessary, all it is right now is talk. Becoming a parent is an action verb. Parent is a noun, and parenting is a verb. When we become parents, we spend the rest of our lives in the action verb phase. I know that at 56 I am still in that phase, and love it.
I told Anne today as we were talking, that although you can imagine what holding your baby will be like, you can not anticipate the unadulterated joy and unconditional love you will feel and have once you get to actually meet your baby. I shared with her again, how I felt holding her. Soon, I will get to hear her version of that unique, life changing event. I can't wait....
Let the games begin..... I am off to buy a crib and and some other new baby bed that connects right to Anne and Patrick's for the baby's first months.......and attend a Baby Shower in New York, where I am the Grandmother to be....WOW!
Until next time,
Pam
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