On my little trip to Las Vegas, I got to spend some time with my son in law. The 10 or so days I was there was the most time I had ever spent with the guy. In fact, this visit may have included more days around him than all of my previous time with him combined. It's not that I don't like my son in law, but just that he lives far away and my trips are normally short and focus more on my daughter than her husband. So far I like Ryan and as long as he keeps my daughter and granddaughter happy and healthy I will let him live. He was very polite and generous to me and my wife while we were visiting, as he should have been keeping in mind my protective nature towards my girls (wife, daughter & granddaughter).
The entertaining part of our visit, at least to me, was that my son in law is very into his new daughter and tries to do as much as possible to care for her. I know that sounds like a good thing, but in his overly ambitious effort to be as helpful and nurturing to his daughter as possible, he was asking for some serious trouble. Poor Ryan had failed to notice that the house also contained a new mother and grandmother who were in full on mommy and grandma mode respectively. The worst of which is a grandma who has to go home far away in a few days.
Being older and wiser and having lived with these women for some time I played it safe and held my granddaughter when she was handed to me, looked after her when asked, feed her when requested, but otherwise kept safely out of the mommy and grandma's way. Ryan, on the other hand, was taking his daddy role seriously and on several occasions walked right into the danger zone. Well, he is young and loves his daughter so I could only watch as he set himself up for the verbal abuse dished out to him after both mommy and grandma had reached their limits. Some things must be learned first hand.
So the fact that I found some entertainment in his getting yelled at by my girls and did nothing to prevent it, I will just consider it a perk of being the grandpa and hope I can be smart enough to avoid the same.
It is official, the stork has made a delivery. My daughter Caroline gave birth to the lovely Rachel a little after noon Las Vegas time. Both mother and daughter are doing fine and the proud dad is wearing out his new camera. Hopefully, they will share some of the photos soon as I am not scheduled to go to Vegas for another week or so. Anyway here are the details. Rachel is nineteen inches long and weighs in at seven pounds six ounces.
The whole family is thrilled and excited as you can understand but I still have not seen the child yet so my excitement level has not yet peaked. I tried to get one of the engineers from work to build me one of those Star Trek transporter things so I could get there sooner but he claimed to not have all the parts. So I will just have to wait a little while longer. Since I have some time before my trip I will do what any self-respecting grandpa would do. Look for some really loud toys, ones that make loud and continuous sounds that make little babies laugh and drive parents mad. After all, isn't that my job now, to do anything to make Rachel smile and laugh regardless of what her parents think?
My daughter Caroline and her husband Ryan as well the whole family are looking forward to the arrival of their first child in a few months.
Caroline called us this last night to inform us that the doctor had determined that she going to have a little girl. This being the case Caroline has been pushing family members to suggest names for this little bundle of joy. Anybody that knows me is well aware that this is not a question you wish to ask if you are looking for some sort of reasonable response.
While I am one of those who think that a person's name has a great influence on how they turn out, (how many great, talented people do you know named "Wilbur"?) I could not resist of offering up my suggestion and stating that my choice would come with the nick name of Happy Butt. That I would call the little girl Happy Butt and perhaps on her 12th or 13th birthday I would explain this nick name to her. Much to my dismay they have chosen to go with something else not having the foresight to allow me this well planned event. So, you want to know my choice in naming this child? It is all explained in the following joke.
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Happy Butt
This lovely little girl was entering class for the first time. A friendly little boy said his name was "David, what is yours?"
"Happy Butt" she says.
"Don't lie to me, that isn't your name! What is your name?"
"Happy Butt" she says again.
"I'm going to tell the teacher on you for lying!" he shouts. He gets the teacher and says she is lying to him about her name.
"What is your name?" asks the teacher.
"Happy Butt" says the little girl.
"No, no," says the teacher. "What is your real name?"
"Happy Butt" replies the little girl.
"Shame on you for lying." says the teacher. "You go straight to the principal's office right this minute!"
"Why are you here?" asks the principal of the little girl.
"They think I'm lying when I tell them my name is Happy Butt." said the little girl.
"Your name can't be Happy Butt" says the principal. "I'm going to call your mother right this minute and straighten this out. You mustn't lie to us about your name." The principal calls the mother and says, "We have your little girl here and she keeps telling us her name is 'Happy Butt.'"
"Oh, that must be Gladys," says the mother.
"Well, little girl, your mother says your name is Gladys," says the principal.
The little girl replies, "Happy Butt, Glad Ass, what's the difference?"
