My Granty

Today the Niehoff celebration of Christmas kicked into high-gear, with two of my siblings and their families arriving in St. Louis.  Alexa was eagerly awaiting the arrival of her cousins and must have asked 100+ times when they would be arriving, because, in her words, they were taking forever.  I was working remotely today, so thankfully NeNe was able to keep her occupied by giving her tasks to do before her cousins arrived, the most important one being the placement of the gifts under the Christmas tree.

I was working in the other room and listening to my mom (NeNe) try to continue the promotion of phonics to Alexa.  As my mom was showing Alexa the nametags on the gifts, they discovered that all of the grandchildren had an "A" in their name.  After going through each child's name in descending age order, my mom was explaining the placement of the "A" in Grant's name.  Alexa excitedly said, "My Granty!?!"  I love that she continues to cherish her brother and big sister role; nothing makes me happier.

Today's 'weepy moment of the day' came when my parents were opening the photo calendar of all of their grandchildren.  This was the second year we had given them a grandchildren calendar, and I had designed it, so I was very familiar with the layouts, photos, etc... and had already seen it plenty of times.  However, as my mom flipped to June (Grant's birth month), I started to cry, as the reality that Granty will never have a first birthday hit home.  I did feel a little better when I saw Damon and my sisters (in-law too) were tearing up as well - - it's always better to cry with people versus the soda aisle of Fry's :)  This boy evokes the tears and emotion from everyone.  To think I used to be the unemotional one - - so much so that my sister Julie even said it in a legal deposition (lol).  Yes, my little boy has changed me....

The kids' table tonight....