The day Kaitlyn was born, our family was changed forever. Not just by having another person in family pictures or another mouth to feed or someone else to find gifts for, but by having the sweetest baby on the planet to bring us closer together.
When my sister told my parents that she was pregnant, my mom was happier than I have ever seen her (once she got over the fact that my sister did her pregnancy test at my house and not at my mom's). My mom has always talked about having grandchildren. When we would go shopping, she would always find tiny baby clothes that she couldn't wait to buy for her first grandchild. Of course, she would spend more time picking out dresses for little girls, but she would always say that she didn't have a preference. She just couldn't wait to have a grandchild. And you could tell that she meant it. My dad, on the other hand, just sat in his chair and said, "Huh. How about that." And that was it. Until the day Kaitlyn was born. Then I saw a very different side of my father.
When I saw how my father acted with my two young cousins, I knew that he would be a great grandfather (well, not a great grandfather because that would be his father, but you get what I'm saying here), but I had no idea how great. I don't think it would be too much to say that Pop Pop is one of Kaitlyn's favorite people. Whenever the whole family is together, she can often be found searching for his face. You almost never see her happier than when Pop Pop is making one of his silly faces for her. She smiles the biggest smiles that you will ever see her smile (geez, I own four thesauruses, but I obviously can't take the time to find another word for smile. Or even take the time to just rewrite that sentence so that I don't use the word smile 14 times. Yet I can take the time to write out my thought process about using the word smile too many times. Okay. Enough of the that. Ahem.).
One of the sweetest things I have seen is when Pop Pop is asleep in his chair with Kaitlyn sleeping on his chest. Now growing up, I saw some scary sides of my father (it probably didn't help that I was a brat), but those are long forgotten when you see how gentle and sweet he is with Kaitlyn. Of course, my mother and I are constantly fighting over who gets to hold her. And then sometimes my father will walk up and say, "Let me hold her for a minute." At first, we actually thought it would only be a minute. But we are slowly learning that once Pop Pop gets to hold her, we are never going to get a chance. When I see my father holding my niece, I realize what a great father he was and what an even better grandfather he has become. I am proud to know him and call him my father.
1 comment:
That was very sweet. And don't lie, you know you felt GUILTY!
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