GRANDMA

GRANDMA

Grandma when I think of you

A smile comes to my face

I have known you all my life

And hold you in a state of grace

I love you more than words can say

My feelings for you grow more with each passing day

You have done so much for me in my life

It seems like you have that magic touch and can always relieve my strife

When my mother died I thought my world was shattered

But you were there to pick me up even though my heart was splattered

You made my childhood better than “Leave it to Beaver”

It was all because of your help, I turned into an achiever

Grandma you have one of the most gentle and kind soul’s I have ever known

I pray I can have a shred of your kindness when I’m fully grown

Nothing you did ever went unnoticed even though it may have seemed that way

I wish I could rewind and continually hit replay

I’m so happy you got to meet and know my boy, J.R.

I will do my best to pay forward the kind of person you are

We will make a treasure chest full of your memoires

This way J.R. won’t forget and have you there for centuries

I will treasure the gifts that you will leave with me

I will love them forever, this I can guarantee

I want you to know when you leave this earth my heart will be broken into pieces

This is going to be a life lesson I guess that is what god teaches

People say time heals all wounds that someday the pain will subside

But grandma I can tell you I think they must have lied

I can’t imagine not being able to call you on the telephone

I guess I have to put on my big girl pants because you have raised me and now I should be grown

Grandma I love you so much more than words can say

I will miss everything about you but will miss you most on your birthday

You will always have a place in my heart that no one will ever fill

I love you so much, my heart it over spills

I will always be looking for signs you are looking down on us from above

I know you will never leave us, you’ll always be there with your love

1-24-11

Oh, what a difference a child makes!

I started writing the posting below after we got back from our trip to AZ thinking my grandma had a few more weeks but that was not to be. I got a call at 6am Tuesday, February 1st from my Uncle saying my grandma, J.R.'s great grandma had passed away. I flew down to AZ to be with my grandpa for a week and tried to help as much as I could. I'm now back home and it's slowly becoming a reality that my sweet sweet grandma is gone. Our family will never be the same. I love you grandma. Below is the post I started a few weeks ago:

This past weekend was one of the hardest times of my life. My grandma, J.R.'s great grandma has terminal cancer. She's been fighting it for 5 years and now it's come to the end of the road. My grandma raised me from age 11, when my mother passed away. My grandmother took the place of my mother without a misstep and I was so lucky to have such a wonderful woman and hero in  my life. Here are some family pictures we took back in November of 2007, before J.R.

Tony had a wonderful idea that the entire family (including Toots) hop in the car and head down to spend some time with my grandma. J.R. added so much happiness to the time spent with my grandma. She's too weak to communicate but would smile when she would hear or see J.R. She had what was probably her last lunch at the table with J.R. and boy did he put on a show. He counted to ten and said the alphabet (with my help of course) for my grandma. He continually told my grandma that, "big goggle was sleeping" aka the goalie went off the ice between periods. We also had conversations about his friends at daycare while my grandma watched and smiled. He made everyone laugh without knowing it he lifted the spirits of all of us whenever he was around. I don't see my grandpa smile anymore except when J.R. is around or when he talks about how smart and lucky we are to have such a wonderful little boy. Friends of my grandparents are stopping by saying how happy my grandma was to spend this last Christmas with us, especially J.R., she loves him so!  I brought J.R. to "nana's room" so he could say "goodbye" before we left to come home, I can still hear him now, "bye bye Nana" while he waved and had a big smile on his face. My grandma smiled!

I plan to go back to Arizona next week by myself. I am going to miss my little boy, who's so joyful and full of innocence. J.R. you will never know how you brightened one the of saddest weekends of our lives. Thank you!

Here are a few pictures of J.R. I took this weekend. What a hoot!

J.R. wearing daddy's shoes.



J.R. wearing mommy's shoes.



J.R. in the kitchen picking up crumbs!

Sleeping in!



Looking Cute!



Taking a nap!

More Ice Skating

I had to add these new pictures. We went ice skating for the second time today!

Oh, what a weekend! We had the typical hockey filled weekend, going to the UNLV game Friday night and the Wranglers Saturday night. J.R. LOVES Duke, the Wrangler's mascot, that is until he comes near J.R. We have Duke hockey pucks and the Duke foam hand. J.R. says he wants to give the Duke hugs and kisses yet when the Duke is within 300 feet J.R. gets VERY upset, cries and tries to hid behind Tony or myself! Then once the Duke leaves all J.R. can talk about is the Duke. I'm not sure if J.R. likes the hockey games or if he likes being on the lookout for Duke. J.R. always knows where the Duke is during the game. He must keep one eye on the game and one eye on the Duke!

Speaking of the hockey game, J.R. has created his own hockey language. He calls the goalie "big goggle". When the goalie goes off the ice between periods, for those 20 minutes J.R. is chanting over and over "big goggle goes night night". OMGosh, if the goalie net falls over J.R. gets very agitated and will not sit down until the net is fixed. J.R. also calls the checking.... bumps then he may try to elbow you out of your seat. Here's a picture of J.R. at the hockey game this weekend.

Sunday we had brunch at Ralph and Mary Lou's house also called Nana and Papa. J.R. is very fortunate to have so many Nana and Papa's who care about him! We brought the entire family to brunch including Toots. Mary Lou and Ralph's dog Bridgette and Toots played and ran around the entire property. We spent a lot of time outside where J.R. ended up feeding the dogs "cookies". I had to post this picture because J.R. ate his first doggie treat, ewh! I of course couldn't get the picture of J.R. eating the doggie treat but here's the aftermath!



Lots of "stuff"!

J.R. is talking SO much now. He's having full on conversations. J.R. was driving his motorized car with his dad outside today (Yes it was 65 degrees in January). They heard a neighbor's dog that was howling and sounded like a wolf. J.R. ended up telling Tony the wolf bit his shoe and he had an "owie" but he was okay now. Our question was, how did he know that a wolf bites?

J.R. loves playing with all his toys he got for Christmas and birthday. Here's some pictures of him playing with his musical instruments.

Playing the guitar his Auntie JuJu got him for his birthday!

Playing the piano and singing. Thanks Auntie Lori!

A few nights ago we went ice skating for the first time. Here are some pictures of J.R. and his dad. Tony said J.R. was amazing on ice skates. He was surprised he could stand up on skates let alone skate. J.R. actually skated on his own. He had a melt down after skating and did not want to take the skates off!

2 Years Old!

We had a fantastic birthday week! We woke up Wednesday, January 5th to an over sized cupcake; singing happy birthday to J.R.

Later that night we opened presents, when J.R. got home from daycare. He had so much fun and really loves to tear open packages!

Friday afternoon J.R. went to Chuck E Cheese with all his daycare buddies. Here are some pictures. I think everyone is enjoying themselves!

We went to the circus Friday night. J.R. loved it, we were out until 11pm. That is a new record! We went with our friend Audrey. They both had a fun time riding the elephants and ponys!

We ended our birthday week with presents from Nana and Papa Roberston! They got J.R. a bike and this bike he could ride himself! Here's a picture of him riding his bike an grabbing a cookie on the run!

Happy New Year and Snow!

 It snowed here in Vegas yesterday! When J.R. woke up we went out into the snow and played. Well actually, I carried him around in the snow, he didn't want to walk! Here's some pictures of our house and side yard with snow!

 

As I was coming back from dropping J.R. off at daycare I realized I forgot to take pictures of J.R. in his first snow! I was feeling disappointed and then Karen, our daycare provider sent some pictures of J.R. and his friends playing in the snow! She said he loved it and did not want to go inside!

Here are some pictures of J.R and his friends from daycare at the Shed Aquarium.

Here are some fun pictures from New Years Day! We played all day at home with mom, dad and Uncle Scott.

We got antsy in the pantsy and had to go for a ride. We wore our matching Drake sweatshirts, J.R. and Mom!

Nana and Papa Zaino sent a Blackhawk shirt, pants and posters. He loved to look at the pictures of the nana, papa, Auntie Lori and the snow!

J.R. loves to drive his car. He can steer perfectly, sometimes the furniture gets in the way!

Here we are playing our favorite air hockey game with Uncle Scott on New Years. We play this for hours! Thanks Auntie Lori and Todd!

J.R is turning 2 tomorrow! We are looking forward to having birthday cake and giving him lots of hugs and kisses! We are taking all J.R.'s friends from daycare to Chuck E. Cheese on Friday to celebrate J.R.'s birthday. We also have our prepreschool celebration next week at class. On Saturday we will have our family day with J.R. to celebrate his birthday with mom, dad and Uncle Scott. We are going to the jump zone, circus circus and then open presents and have more birthday cake! It's going to be a fun birthday week for J.R.!