Girlie Girls and Boyly Boys

These are my twinnies. When dear daughter DL, was expecting them I called them the twinkle toes and they truly are such bright lights in my life. They'll be 5 pretty soon and have just been so fun to see grow. Sabrina's the youngest and littlest. She was so teensy at birth but a real fighter. She has some trials in life, but that smile is just a little hint of her determination. She was born with a condition called achromatopsia and does not have the ability to see colors, plus has a real problem with light. Those are new special glasses with lenses that cut the light for her. She's blinded by sunlight so has outside glasses to help with that. It saddens me that the wonderful colors of the world are not available to her, but technology may help her to accomplish things unavailable to someone with that condition years ago. She's a princess and a trooper!! Sydney is so full of life...never a dull moment with her around and she's almost always moving. You can't see her smile, but I hope you get a bit of her fantastic personality. She and Adam love my leggos! She's a good big sister to her twin and to Spencer. She is a happy, happy child! Gives great hugs, too. You would have a hard time guessing they're twins when they're standing side by side, even though often dressed alike!

Below is Adam, almost 8 and one of the most confident people I know. He's so full of enthusiasm and energy. Is that a great smile or what? He loves playing with gramma's leggos--the best investment in toys ever made! Adam is the namesake of my son. He wants to be a doctor like his uncle Adam, and is very smart. Soccer is a great love of his, too. He was so excited to finally be a big brother and has been a great one to the twinnies and Spencer. Spencer is over a year old now and is just a total bundle of energy!! This child is so fun and never still. He gives great slobbery kisses and hugs, but grab them when you can as he's almost always on the go whenever he's awake. He's a smart little child and can sit still to play with leggos, or climb into gramma's toy cabinet and play peek-a-boo in there. Those are his momma's cute legs that he's riding on. He doesn't talk much, but DL has taught all her babies some sign language, so he's able to communicate some...although it's usually pretty obvious what Spencer wants when he wants something.

For some reason we got to talking about my walker that I used a couple years ago; that it might be a good substitute for a treadmill for me and give me some stability.Trey wanted to get it out of the storage shed and wow...instant fun for the boyly's and girlies!! Spencer and Sabrina are shown enjoying a ride with Trey volunteering to push them around. It got lots of use in the house and on the deck. The older kiddos figured out how to sit on it and make it go by running their feet over the wheels. Not the cheapest of gramma's toys but provided hours of fun for all. Trey is 10 and a wonderful big brother. He's always got a cazillion ideas going on in his head for inventions, things to do, etc. We have the most fun time when he comes to visit as we both love to make things out of paper or whatever. He's a cub scout and has fun hiking or other boyish things--even likes spiders!! He's a collector of bits and pieces--his mom found over 20 things in his little pockets when he was about 4! If there's a gadget lying around, Trey is trying to figure it out or how to make something similar or better or whatever. Definitely an engineer in the making.

Sage, having green eggs and ham that Boppa fixed for her when she visited us for a week in January. She's now 12. Sucha terrific girl...beautiful, fun, super talented, a great help to her mom and just an all around wonderful young woman. I usually call her Sagie, but she's also called Sageriffic which is an apt nickname for someone who draws beautifully, writes music for and plays the piano marvelously, reads voraciously, knits wonderfully, well...you get the idea!!

Olivia and Gavin live in NY for now. Hopefully, in a couple years they'll be back in Washington. Olivia's a few months old now and Gavin is three. He had beautiful hair but my son decided he needed a buzz for the summer I guess. It made him look a lot more like his dad I think, but I'll be glad to see his hair again at Christmas. He's an inquisitive and fun little boy. Loves to have dad read to him and loves hiking and snowshoeing with his family. Jenny, my daughter in law, has been so good to send pictures and videos of the kiddos. It is much appreciated by grandpa and I.

My grandchildren are so precious. It's such a joy to have them as part of my family. To know these sweet people is one of the very best things in my life!! My daughter came recently for about a week to "babysit" me while Randy was away in D.C. and then up to NY. We had a great time...chaos most of the time, noise all the time but just fun, fun, fun.

I was inspired to make up a song for Sagie when she was a little baby and we were alone for a couple hours. Since then I've made one up for all of my grandchildren. Haven't been able to spend time with Olivia yet, so her song will have to wait until Christmas. Each one is just super simple, but different and it's been a special little thing to share with them each night I'm with them and then just before we part. Sometimes they sing along with me as I sing to another child and if gramma gets a brain drain, they're happy to remind me what song I'm needing to sing.

I have always loved family...parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. Now, it's so fun to have these children be in my life. It is so quiet most of the time around here and I'm so grateful for modern technology that allows me glimpses into their lives and some times even get to see each other over the internet. Wonderful, wonderful!!