In Touch with Heaven

One of the greatest treats for me, that came out of our vacation to see Amy, Gary and our grandkids, was the chance to meet my granddaughter, Heaven. Heaven is now almost 11 months old and this was the first time I had seen her.



I was sure that she would come right to me, but this was not to be the case. I had to work on her a little, but it didn't take long before she realized that I was trustworthy. And once that was established she was very affectionate. I was amazed at how good she was at snuggling in and pulling me close.

I have so enjoyed that moment with each of my grandkids, when they have trusted me enough to fall asleep in my arms for the first time.



And Heaven didn't let me down. There is nothing quite like holding a peacefully sleeping child!

Nan's New Hairstyle

It has become a tradition, whenever we are fortunate enough to be able to visit our grandkids who are out of state, that our oldest granddaughter, Elania, who is now eight years old, does Nan's hair for her.

It makes for some interesting hairstyles, but Nan is always a willing subject. So I thought I would include a few pictures of the process from our recent trip to North Carolina.


In this first shot Elania seems to be looking into a mirror at her "beauty station" and deciding what style would work for her. (Actually, she was looking at a video game on the TV that her brothers were playing.)


This shot shows her busy at work on the now tangled mess.



Here we see how Elania really gets into her work by sitting on her subject's shoulder and pulling that ponytail tight!

Nan survived the ordeal and the tradition lives on, just as the bond of love between them continues strong.

Sthnowman!

The picture here of my granddaughter Elania, was taken about five or six years ago. But every year about this time of the year I am reminded of Elania, and of this picture. You see at our house, as part of our decorating for the winter season, my wife brings out all of her snowmen decorations.

At the time of the picture, Elania held quite a fascination with snowmen and one in particular. At a time when you might expect a little girl to carry around a teddy bear or a doll, my granddaughter took a real liking to a snowman candle! That's right, a fairly large, heavy, wax candle that was shaped and decorated as a cute, smiling snowman.

Everywhere that she went throughout the house the snowman was close at hand. And if she ever misplaced him she would set off through the house looking for him and asking us over and over the one word question, "Sthnowman?", "Sthnowman?", with the cutest little distressed look on her face.

Elania carried the snowman for a very long time, dropping him frequently on our hardwood floors, until he was so dented, flattened and misshapen that he was hardly recognizable at all as a snowman.

So that's what she is holding so closely in the picture--her very favorite "Sthnowman!", or at least what was left of him!

But the truth is she never seemed to notice or mind his deformities. I guess that there's just nothing quite like the comforting warmth of cold wax!