Jackson

 Aeron invited Kim and me to her house to visit with the baby...and her, too, but we all know it would all be centered around that precious little 7 month old boy.  I haven't seen him since August so I expected some changes.  He's sitting up now and thinking about crawling but he doesn't crawl, just happily flails his arms and legs around as if he thinks that's the way it's done.  So cute!

Aeron has turned out to be an excellent mother, doting on her little boy but not suffocating him.  It's very hard for a mother to not step in when her baby is getting a little too close to harm but you have to give a child the room to explore and make a mess sometimes.  It was funny to see how one of their dogs, Henry, always stands between the baby and strangers.  I love that he has that protective instinct.  Apparently he doesn't do that when it's just Aeron and Jake with the baby so he knows he can hand over the protective role to them.

Aeron was our first granddaughter and we got to spend a lot of time with her when she was growing up.  That wasn't the case with Shelley's girls, Lisette and Nicole, because they lived all over the world but somehow our family love kept them close, too.

I had mentioned to Aeron on Facebook that she and Jake were going to have so much fun watching him grow up and she misunderstood what I said and thought I was either dying or prepared to not be seeing him.  I had to explain myself (I am sooo misunderstood) in that, yes, Jackson's younger family members will obviously be around to see him grow into a man but I'm 80 years old and obviously won't live long enough to see that happen but I'm going to love every second I do have with him.  It's also such a comfort to know our little ones are being raised in loving and safe homes.  Thank heavens!

I was so darned lucky to have the time and energy to spend with my grandchildren as they were growing up but now, with the greatgrandchildren, I just feel lucky I got to see them and know them at all.

There are quite a few wonderful things about being alive but the most important is our accumulation of good family and good friends.  That's what makes our lives worthwhile.