So adorable!

One more day!

There is much to do to be ready for you, but even if I don't get one more thing on my "To Do" list done you can be certain that my heart is ready for you :)

The snacks are stacked on the counter, the juice and milk are in the fridge. The safety gate sits at the ready at the top of the stairs and the outlet covers are in every "Blake level" outlet. There are diapers and blankets neatly stacked and ready. The books are in a basket, waiting to be read.

The toys and travel games are in the car waiting to be packaged for presentation. The clothes are on the chair...and gifts are waiting to be wrapped. There is still the idea for a door plate ratteling around in my head, the plans for that project will no doubt materialize in the eleventh hour as they so often do. And as it so often happens the tasks will all be completed when today's early morning turns into tonight's evening.

So I will be diligent and finish my list. And I will be patiently waiting for just the right moment when the plane lands and Grammy Time begins again :)....

The countdown begins...

The countdown begins...okay, so the countdown started the moment we left Wooster, but now that August 27 is in site, we can begin a respectable countdown..a realistic countdown, a countdown that can be captured in two hands!

...and that countdown is now inside of one week...true it's only inside by minutes, but when it comes to Grammy Time every minute counts.

I have been gathering toys...blocks, books, pull toys, bath time toys, cars...basically anything else that seems to be labeled appropriate for a one year old. I am convinced that we found the last pool in the Seattle area! and we are ready to play.

We have passed the need for infant spoons, bottles, and jars of baby food; we have crossed the threshold into the land of toddler utensils, sippy cups, plastic plates, safety gates, outlet plugs, faucet covers, and bubble bath.

And soon, though not soon enough, the office will be transformed into a sleeping room for Blake. And soon, though not soon enough, we will be together.

How wonderful to have begun the countdown!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Happy Birthday, Blake is ONE!

Happy Birthday Blake!

...and just that quickly the year has passed.

You have learned so very much this year...and in your sweet innocence you have also taught much!

You have made parents out of children, and grandparents out of parents...the circle of life does indeed spin on.

You walk, you chatter, you smile and you tease...and above all, you capture our hearts.

I love you Blake :) - Grammy

You've got the cutest little baby feet...

There's something wonderfully sweet about baby feet:)...from the first moment of life we count the little toes and play "this little piggy went to market with them"...and why do we do it? Who really can say, but I know that I do it because you really do have the sweetest little baby feet.

The first gift I bought for you was the newborn pair of loafers...the white ones with the brown fringe and tassels. I couldn't help myself, they were just too cute to pass up. Funny thing about shoes, I never bought all that many for my sons...they liked being barefoot, and I was of the the opinion that shoes were only for being practical outside, but inside...ah the inside was for bare footin!

Still with you, well, with you it's somehow different. I think it's because I'm the grandma and I can think about the frivolous stuff for you, while your mommy takes care of the necessary!...After a lifetime of taking care of the necessary and the practical, it's my turn to bring the "extras" into your life...so shoes it is!

I like feet too because they remind me of my dad. The first thing dad would do whenever he saw the boys was to wiggle their feet...I like that. And I must admit, wiggling little feet is a pretty sweet way to start the day!

From the beginning of life, our feet just sit there at the end of your legs, just resting up for a lifetime of movement. But one day, those same feet will take you anywhere you want to go!

That also reminds me of a song we used to sing as children: Oh be careful little feet where you go, oh be careful little feet where you go...the Father up above is looking down in love, Oh be careful little feet where you go.

May God bless your steps and may you always stay close to the foot of the cross. I love you Blake :) ~ Grammy

Granny's Lion

I must admit , one of the sweetest memories that I carry in my heart is of Birthday cakes :)

With the exception of ice cream on Sundays, and watermelon in the summer...I think that birthdays were the only times we really even had dessert as a child.

With five siblings, and birthdays scattered throughout the year, we, of course had ample opportunities for birthday desserts.

I know that my little brother's dessert of choice was always mom's blueberry pie...what an adventurer Tommy was, who chooses pie? when they could have cake complete with icing and icecream, but every year...he chose pie!

I remember my favorite birthday cake, though I don't recall the exact year...the memory of the cake remains fresh!

My favorite birthday cake was an ice cream cake! Oh, not the kind of ice cream cake that you can buy from Dairy Queen...this cake was around long before theirs ever was on the menu.


My ice cream cake was made COMPLETELY of ice cream...tiny little scoops of all different kinds of ice cream...mostly sherberts, which made for a completly colorful slice of ice cream perfectly melting on my dessert plate on that beautiful August evening....

and here is where the beauty of this little lion comes in....

This little lion, celebrated with me that day now so long ago...high atop a mountain of icecream and whip cream topping, he once heard the last fading notes of my happy birthday song.

Just as he had heard the birthday songs of my family for the past sixty years, my hope is that he will hear the tunes for the next sixty years to come, and then some, and then some....