GRANDKIDS

Today is my oldest grand daughters 4th birthday. Hannah was born at Evanston Hospital 4 years ago today. My wife and I had been out with neighbors and we all finished up a good bottle of wine. We weren't home too long when the call came. Though we were sure ready to turn in before the call we were wide awake after the call.

Grand kids are a great gift to people that have kids - give up a lot to do so - and survive. The ironic thing about it is that we know what our kids are going through having their kids - but they don't know what we're going through having grand kids. It's two different experiences. I used to think I'd have a huge genealogy experience - see my grand kids through my kids - view them with pride as extensions of me etc. Well, it really isn't like that. The gift is that you don't have to "view" your grand kids through ANY prism or legacy. That's the gift they give you - total transparency. And it seems that for dad's anyway - we can't quite view our own kids as transparent when they are little because we have a responsibility to "raise them." And that's certainly true -but busy dad's like I was tend to miss a lot when the kids are little.

Life is less complicated now then when your rushing through the untested waters of child rearing. God makes life less complicated now so that we can enjoy the less complicated lives of our grand kids.

We really miss seeing Hannah and her sister Lucy everyday like we used to. We know we're missing a lot of fun stuff. SKYPE just isn't the same. So every chance we get we try to go see the kids. They allow us to relive our youth and remember what the important things in life are after spending a life time forgetting. As Lennon said, "Life's what happens while your busy making other plans." I know longer make plans. I try to figure out how to see my grand kids as often as I can.