December 13

 

Our newest addition to the stocking family.

December 10

Who knew a stocking cap came with new Christmas pajamas?

December 9

Claire gets the honor of hanging the first ornament on the Morgan tree, reindeer ears/Santa hat and all.

No telling what might be used as a hat.

Hamilton had such fun playing with the nativity figures. This is baby Jesus,as he confidently points out.

More Grandchildren Pics

We're seeing the kids so much lately and I'm loving it. The Morgans and Travis came for the weekend and fulfilled the gift of a photography shoot that they gave me for Mother's Day. Whatever excuse it takes to get them here is fine with me. I'll post some of the professional pictures later, but I thought these weekend shots were cute.

Unbeknownst to us, Hamilton decided to try out the cradle. He certainly fills it up.

Claire's all ready for a bike ride with her Dad complete with a camelback water supply.

It's hard being a parent!

Sweet Collier all swaddled up and sleeping in the cradle Dale made for our children.

Ah! Grandchildren

Our visit with the Morgans the last few days gave us lots of fun opportunities to connect with our grandchildren. Claire had a presentation on historic Charleston architecture along with other members of her SAIL class and she also participated in a fifth grade talent show later that evening.

Each student studied and made a 'to scale' model of an historic building after taking the actual measurements from the building downtown. Claire chose the Pink House.

Claire taught herself Minuet in G from one of Gray's old piano books. Perhaps we have a budding muscian in the family.


Friday, after much loading of gear and restraining of children, we headed to the Isle of Palms for a day at the beach. We like to use the county park there with its excellent facilities, parking and umbrella rentals. Unfortunately, the umbrella/chair rental company hadn't set up business for the summer yet. With Collier in tow we came up with an alternate method of keeping him sunburn-free.

There's a baby under all that toweling.

Saturday morning we packed the kids up once more and visited the Marion Square Farmers' Market for a morning of strolling through the vendor booths of fresh veggies, cooked treats, herbs, art and jewelry. It was kick-off Saturday for the Spoleto Festival so there were more vendors than usual and tons of people. Families with small children were in abundance and Hamilton loved the jump castle, one of several on site. The sun was bright but there was adequate shade for relaxing on a blanket and feeding wee Collier.

Though I'm not much of a photographer, I was able to capture a couple of cute photos of Collier smiling.

Travis urged us to stop by his place in Columbia on our way home ( I think he really wanted to see Hamilton more than us) and we enjoyed having supper downtown at Jason's Deli where there's complimentary ice cream at the end of every meal. Hamilton enjoyed his cone-the first, I think, for him- more than I can describe. We laughed 'til our sides hurt trying to get him to understand that he could bite the cone and eat it too!

Arachnophobia

One of the fun things about being around grandchildren for an extended period is getting to see how they like to spend their time. Claire loves to make and build things. She can stay focused on one project for hours. Dale and I had given her a Hex Bug for her birthday back in January (at the insistance of another child her age) and she used some of her own money to buy lots of gear to go with it. She and Seth enjoyed setting up elaborate configurations for the newly acquired bugs to navigate. While we were with her this visit, she wanted to show me how it all worked. If you've not seen this modern use for microchips you'll be impressed by the genius of some inventer who's probably made millions creating a lively version of  these arthropods. It just makes me want to stomp them!

Reflections

The greatest joy of 2010, without a doubt, has been watching my grandson grow. This eighteen months old, bundle of energy and light, has captivated us from the get-go. As a tiny infant, I was thrilled with the wonder of a newborn—the complete dependency, the perfectly formed little person that he was. With each month that passed, we saw his personality develop. There surely couldn’t be a more agreeable baby than he. His ready smile melts our hearts and now that he walks and talks he’s more fun than the proverbial barrel of monkeys. Many of our friends have grandchildren close in age to Hamilton and they’re expressing the same thoughts about their little ones. I loved my children every minute as they were growing up but, oh my goodness, there’s nothing like a grandchild!