Click on Myrtle's picture for a slideshow tribute to her.
My Grandmother, Myrtle, called Nanny by all her grandkids, died peacefully in Massena NY on Sunday at the ripe old age of 98. Her death was a work in progress over the past 5 years, slowly retreating to the world within before departing and leaving her body behind. The last time I saw her was at Thanksgiving in Massena in 2005, she was a gentle soul then, child like and seemed to remember me. The time I saw her before that was in 2002 in Westlake Ohio, she seemed to know then that her journey was beginning and she opened her heart to me, told me she knew she had been hard on me and told me she loved me and always had. She was my last surviving grandparent and since I did not attend the funerals of the other 3 Colleen, Ambiana, Gaelen and I are going to go up to Massena on Wednesday night for the wake on Thursday and the funeral on Friday.
Our little Kutie-Pie is so close to walking, her latest trick is to stand up on her own two feet and balance before plopping back down on her butt. Colleen has been teaching her signs for everything. The latest are "opening" and "closing" the curtains, "swing", and "house". She communicates very well and loves having Gaelen and Eden in the house. Her and Gaelen really like to "raspberry" each other at the dinner table.
The back bedroom gets the early morning sun at 6:30am and since Gaelen and Eden rise at that time before us Molly uses that time to read to them! It has been 3 weeks now that we have all lived together and it is going really well, Molly is a big help with cooking and clean-up and Ambiana as I said loves having Gaelen and Eden around.
Contrambiana!!!
Fathering My Son
We are getting a grip on living with Gaelen 24/7 and have created a schedule board for him with colorful symbols for the different activities we have planned for him so he knows what to expect each day. His whineyness and crying are diminishing a bit each day as we take the steps to empower him so he is not so needy and can do things himself like put his snow pants on so his pants beneath don't ride up. He is super high maintenance but as long as we don't give into frustration he doesn't mirror it back to us as over-the-top behavior.
