Musings from the Ozone

 Our second born grandson, Mark Phillip Choconta

In the years before I became a grandmother, I must confess, I knew practically zero about the role.  My first real emotional feeling did not come when my oldest married daughter told me she suspected she was pregnant.  Of course, I felt somewhat excited for her and her husband, but for some unknown reason, their anticipation of the new baby, and the fact that it would be my first grandchild, just did not make an impact on me until the very day he was born!  As I looked through the nursery window at this little baby boy, saw his father peering in at him with unmistakable joy and wonder, it suddenly struck me; that we were all involved in this true bonding of a family; it was a total miracle and I was a part of it!  I may have even bonded sooner with the baby than anyone else, for his mother had a c-section delivery and was more or less 'out of it' for a few hours.  Since she was in a deep sleep, it allowed me to sit and hold the little one for quite a few hours right after his birth.

I felt the wonder again, of how a new mother would feel, after I held the little newborn in my arms for the first time.  Although my husband and I have 4 children of our own, and I have felt the euphoria of having newborns in my arms  before, there was still a very special feeling  that came over me while looking at this little guy!  As I looked at his beautiful little hands, and feet, and all the little expressions he would make; wrinkling up his face up as if to cry, yawn, or look around the room, the amazement of the mystery of life welled up in my heart; what a miracle!  What a bundle of promise!  What a precious new start to life! Tears of joy were on the verge of spilling and trickling down my cheeks!

To bring my feet back to earth, I pondered where the word grandmother even came from?  The Online Etymology Dictionary says that; "the use of grand- in compounds, with the sense of "a generation older than, or younger than," is first attested c.1225, in Anglo-Fr. graund dame "grandmother."  It means that at one time the title 'dame' in English, was adorned with 'grand!'  Of course, now with the words connected, the meaning of the 'grand' may well be lost.  When one thinks of grand, there is a sense of something impressive, outstanding, wonderful, worthy of great respect, and of exceptional ability or rank.  However, the average grandmother does not always don this high and 'grand dame' approach to her grandchildren; she generally looks on them as a great source of pride and joy. The 'grandness' does not come from within herself; rather, it seems to emanate from the grandchildren!

Unwilling to leave this little article in a solemn and reminiscent style of a memory and a definition, I wish instead, to branch out a bit into the reasons that my own grandchildren keep me in the state of wonder!  While they haven't truly shown all their potential for future careers such as musicians, artists, writers, sportsmen, teachers, preachers or such, they do possess an innocent and elegant humor that always seems to be bursting forth unexpectedly out of their little souls. They just have no idea how comical they really are!

Our youngest grandchild, Phoebe, has become quite a singer for a three year old!  It appears that she is following the footsteps of her mother.  She sings all the time; she sings even if she doesn't know the words. If she is uncertain of a song, she will adlib to the tunes she knows.  She sings songs about any punishment she might have coming, songs about the pastor, songs about going to bed, and songs in the car on the way to an event.  My daughter wrote me recently; "I love how Phoebe sings 'Here I am to Worship'... "altogether worship, altogether worly-ful to me." (wonderful) It just makes the insides go to mush.  I asked her why she likes this song so much and she said, "I just like it."  Like duh, mom."

Phoebe gets the attention of their pastor, too!  He loves her and loves for her to come up to see him. She has beautiful blonde curls, huge blue eyes  and quickly captivates adults.  She loves the pastor too, and he is always giving her some money when she goes up to see him.  Occasionally, the little girl has to be punished at church, and especially when she runs around the aisles of the church! Her mommy tells her; "pastor will get on your case for misbehaving in the church!"  They heard her singing in her car seat, to the tune of her favorite song again.... 'Here I am to worship.'  She was singing, "Pastor gives me pow-pow…daddy tells me no-no"….This little granddaughter has the makings of a songwriter as well as a singer very early in life!

Having four grandchildren means we have four different resources for humor!  How can I forget the time our oldest grandchild was saying 'goodbye' or 'hasta luego' to some of his relatives in Colombia? His mother and father had taken him there for a visit , as his dad is Colombian and has a large family there.  Andres, around four years old, was busy, having to kiss all the relatives goodbye, when suddenly one of the aunts came to him, lips puckered up for a kiss.   Andres took one look at her and with all her heavy make up on, he decided he didn't want to kiss her!   He said, "I'm not going to kiss those strange lips!"   Needless to say, it was a hilarious moment, but mom and dad didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Our second grandson, Mark, is known for a quick wit and quick retort.  One night he was all dressed up for church in a suit and tie, and his hair combed neatly.  He was looking at himself in the mirror, and made a remark, "I look like a preacher!"   Our oldest grandson, older by six years, and a much bigger physique, was sitting down, rather casually, and in totally casual clothes, looking at his brother.   He said, "Nah, you don't !"   Mark replied, adamantly, "YES, I do!"   Of course, the argument escalated, with the oldest, telling him, no, he didn't look like a preacher and Mark responding, yes he did!   Well, this aggravated Mark, and he turned around on his heels and punched his older brother in the stomach.   He said, "If I don't look like a preacher, well, then, I won't act like a preacher!"

This same grandson, Mark, is getting to be very smart when it comes to money!   Every Sunday, a lady in their church would sell ice cream and popsicles to help further the building fund along.   Mark, always thinking outside of the box, put on a little sad face around the woman, and she would give him some ice cream for free.   One Sunday, someone caught Mark, taking the same ice cream and trying to sell it off to another person for some money!

He is also the one we always had to watch at church!   Once, on a visit to Milwaukee, we went to their church.  The church was renting a huge theatre at that time, and the place was so cavernous that the children had running space like they would never have at home.   I was distracted more than once by kids running the aisles after church, and as the mothers of the children were busy or not around, I tried to help out by curbing the children from running laps around the church.   As I turned to stop one of them, Io and behold, I saw who was the instigator and leader of the running!   It was our own grandson!   It seemed that once I managed to stop him, all the other runners were stopped as well!   Isn't it remarkable that this same grandson was the one who would scare us all by his jumping off of his bunk bed when he was just three years old?   I think he is the same grandson who scared his poor mother nearly to death, when he jumped about 8 ft from a top rung of a set of climbing bars in the local park!

'Grand---children' are some of God's most awesome creations, and I am sure He created them just for us ....'Grand-parents!'