Yellow flowers in need of identification
Well, despite all the difficulties of the past few weeks we managed to hang in there long enough to become grandparents. It was slightly sooner than we had been expecting but everything was well-managed and mother and baby are doing well. Despite my advice, Number Two Son was present at the birth and will doubtless be scarred for life. I’m not the greatest father and husband, I admit, but I am a good retailer and it’s important to keep the shop open, as I told Julia when avoiding being present at either birth.
It’s a boy, in case I hadn’t mentioned it before, and he was just short of 6lbs, which is a smaller than average for babies in our family, but plenty big enough if you are the one having to give birth.
Bean flowers
I think that’s all you need to know. It’s much more than all my male readers will want to know. They all stopped reading at “grandparents”, but I know my female readers will want to know the extra details. I remember the trouble I got into after the birth of the two boys when I didn’t know the weights.
To be fair, it wasn’t as bad as the trouble I got into when I took one of them to A&E one night and had to ring Julia when the receptionist asked me “What’s his date of birth?” If you think I’m bad on parenting, I promise you I’m worse on dates.
I’m going to enjoy seeing Number Two Son struggle with parenthood. He caused me plenty of grief growing up and I’m going to enjoy watching him when the boot is on the other foot. I really must go on a diet to make sure I last that long.
Wild flowers
A late congratulations to you all!
Thank you. I will meet him next spring – they are coming over when No 1 Son gets married. It’s all happening here! Meanwhile I will take comfort that No2 Son is going to have someone doing to his life what he did to mine. 🙂 😉 😉
He-he!
🙂
Congratulations to your family on its newest member, Simon!
🙂 Thank you Lavinia.
Well, being a grandparent is certainly easier than being a parent. As for being present at the birth:- the staff at the maternity hospital told me there was no chance the my first child would be born in the foreseeable future – “Possibly tomorrow”. So I went and played golf to calm my nerves. I was probably on the second tee when son Daniel arrived. And we didn’t have mobile phones. Luckily I only played the first nine and then had a shower and a shave and turned up to have my parents-in-law greet me and tell me the good news.
Win-win – avoided the birth and no blame attached. 🙂
I bet that your son is looking forward to you telling him where he is going wrong on the child rearing front with eager anticipation.
Having a grandchild is the nearest that we get to being immortal so I expect that you will warm to it in time.
Strangely enough I thought of using some photos of my great grandparents in the blog – so many generations, but such a little span of history.
A few weeks ago we had a discussion about parenthood. and I was able to dispense advice. 🙂 It was fun.
Congrats!! How exciting!!
Let’s keep this in perspective. It’s moderately exciting, but as a mate of mine used to say “Even idiots can breed.”
And you’ve said this to grandma?
She knows my views. It’s the downside of being married to a man who can’t keep secrets. 🙂
😉
🙂
Oh, congrats, congrats! Kids are often trouble, but most of them turn out all right. Trouble or not, they are our best beloveds.
They seem to have turned out alright in the end. Just before Covid Number 2 son took his Canadian visa (won in a student raffle) some cash and his health insurance policy and started knocking on doors. Seven years later he has a partner, a child, a dog, an apartment and a job in a bank. Not too bad for an immigrant! Though he was once told to fetch someone who could speak English, as the Nottingham accent seemed to confuse the customer. 🙂
Pretty darned good, I should say! Too funny about the Nottingham accent. You should hear some of our Southern accents. Hoo-boy, they can be hard to understand.
🙂 I imagine they can be. In UK we seem to have lost a lot of the difficult old accents as TV smooths them all down and everybody seems to speak as if they come from Essex (often via California).
Congratulations to the happy parents and grandparents!!
Thank you. I’ll pass them along.
(I was 5lb 6 oz .) Congratulations to all concerned
Thank you Derrick. I’m just letting it sink in. Julia has instructed me that I must now trim my beard respectably, like you. And cut my wispy remnants of hair. Tying it back or wearing ahat are not acceptable options.