Grandchild

Or ... grandkid? 

Grandbaby? 

I don't know. I just said them each out loud to see which one sounded most natural. 

(None did.)

But stranger sounding still? Grandma. Grandpa.

Most of my grandparents passed away before I was even born. 

My Grandma Wallace, who actually was around during most of my growing up years, was 74 when I came along.

And, while it is true that my own mother was a grandma before she'd reached 45, most of my kids were born after my parents had turned 70. (My mom was 83 when Starling was born.)

So when I hear "grandma", I naturally think of someone in their 70s or 80s. 

Which ... I guess I am now because two days ago Goldie and Wyatt welcomed their little Isaac Coleman Clough.

After being the one in the hospital having the babies for so long (and also not so long ago), it was a very strange feeling to be pulling up to the hospital as one of the visitors coming to welcome a new baby to our family.

The kids were nearly dying of excitement. Goldie's labor was so fast that they went to school in the morning with not so much as a word of labor even on the horizon and then ... had a nephew before they'd arrived home. (You should have seen Summer and Mette running to tell Hans and Starling the news.) And they haven't quit, in the time since first meeting him, exclaiming things about how they can't believe they have a nephew and about how wonderful babies are. 

Isaac certainly has a decent number of aunts and uncles to dote on him!

Even the older kids made appropriate fuss. Daisy couldn't bear waiting to see him on the weekend and so drove up from Millcreek after work even though she had to get right back the next morning. And Abe and Kenya, who had just started another semester at BYU, drove up late--getting here around midnight--so they could go visit him in the morning before driving the two hours back to Provo for class.

(Kenya sent this picture of Abe, alas, nobody sent me a picture of Kenya. But she was faithfully there. Little Isaac was welcomed by all 10 of his Harris aunts and uncles.)

I snuck back the next morning, when there were no longer 100 children clamoring to hold him, to get a few pictures with my "real" camera.

Unfortunately, I didn't have this blog/journal when my first few kids were born, (They have to look through old hand-written journals and family photo albums to find their baby days.) But, even so, I've had this blog for nearly 19 years now. (!!!!) And all that while it has been filled up with pictures and stories about my own little kids. 

I could never have actually imagined, back when I started it with four young kids in my home and many more still to be born to me that I would one day be recording grandkid stories here. But somehow that day has come!