Call Me a Sentimental Old Fool

My husband and I are in a holding pattern right now, ready to hop in the car and head to Nashville as soon as we get the call that says our youngest son is about to become a daddy.

I was organizing a drawer in my kitchen this morning, one that has a bunch of random utensils and miscellaneous cooking gadgetry in it (everything from toothpicks to measuring cups and spoons to those little holders you put on the ends of ears of hot corn on the cob).  I think I was inspired by our middle son's wife, who is in the process of settling into their new house and has been fitting all of her pristine new kitchen drawers with organizational containers and dividers and such.  A place for everything, and everything in its place, if you will.  I was making a quiche and opened the drawer to get out some measuring spoons for the spices, and it was a bit of a mess in there.  So I sorted through everything until it made sense, and in the process what did I find but this stainless steel baby spoon that I'd totally forgotten I had.

It's not just ANY spoon, you see.  It's engraved with the name of the hospital where our youngest son was born, along with the year: 1993.  (1993 or yesterday?  Potato, po-tah-to.)

For 30 years--30 years!--I've held onto this spoon, a parting gift from the hospital where our last baby was born.  And I'm sure the reason I've done so is that I thought eventually, he would have babies of his own and they could use the spoon he used.  I haven't looked at it once in the six years we've lived in this VA house, and I'm just thrilled that I found it quite by accident today.

So that's going into my suitcase for this upcoming trip, obviously!

Another item I'm going to pack is a stuffed baby Simba that this same son of ours got for Christmas when he was two and a Lion King fanatic to the nth degree.  He wasn't a big stuffed animal guy, though (none of our boys were), so it looks like new after 28 years of languishing in a closet. I didn't ever pass it on to any of our little nieces and nephews, or even to our grandchildren, because I was saving it for him.  The day when he might need it for his own children always seemed so, so far into the future, but I was patient...and incredibly, that future is now!  

Maybe our new little granddaughter will love on this stuffed Simba fiercely enough that he will finally look his age!

Am I a sentimental old fool for holding onto so many mementos from our boys' childhood days?   Maybe.  You can call me that, I don't mind.  If the shoe fits and all that good stuff.

A Christening Ensemble for a Living Doll

Just a warning: this is going to be a photo-rich post. I'm writing it mostly for myself, to have scrapbook-style memories that I can keep forever.  Because I'm about to give away a beloved item that I've been hanging onto for three decades; and although it is going to the very recipient for whom I was saving it all these years, I will miss seeing it hanging in one of the guest room closets of our house.

This guest room of which I speak is one that I always thought of as our youngest son's room, because when we moved into this house in VA almost seven years ago, he was the only one of our five boys who wasn't married yet.  So I wanted him to have a room that was "his" whenever he came to visit us here.  He was in the Army, stationed in Germany, when we sold his childhood home and moved south, and I always felt a little guilty about that.  He loved our NH house; it was the only one he'd ever known.  Our other boys had all started families and had homes of their own, so they didn't need to have bedrooms here; but our baby did.

A dresser-top tribute to my baby boy.
 (BTW: who is that old lady in the mirror?!)

Well, that baby of ours is 30 now.  And he's about to have a baby of his very own.  His wife is due with child #1, a girl, in about a week.  And we are ready to head to Nashville as soon as we get the word that she's in labor.

When we pack up the car to get on the road, we will be bringing with us the christening gown I made for my youngest son 30 years ago.  Our four older boys had worn a Pearl family heirloom made by my mother-in-law; but our nephew, who was born four days before son #5, was being baptized on the same day as he was, and that nephew was going to be wearing the family gown.  (The cousins were baptized together at the church in upstate NY where Pearls had been attending Mass for generations--and where my husband and I were married in 1980.)

So in 1993, I made this christening gown.

The fabric wasn't the best--just a very pedestrian cotton blend.  When I made christening gowns for our four oldest boys' babies starting in 2011, I used lovely linen-and-lace fabrics that I found in my late mother-in-law's attic.  A talented seamstress, she had quite a vast collection of fabrics and sewing notions stored up there. But back in 1993 when I set out to sew my first christening gown, she was still alive and I didn't dare ask her if I could have something from the attic.  I knew she had lots of plans for the things she was going to make with all those bolts of material and piles of white linen pillow shams.  So the fabric I used for my creation wasn't top-notch; but I put pin-tucks in the bodice and hand-embroidered shamrocks on both the bodice and skirt.  I poured lots of love into that gown, and my boy looked like an angel in it.  (I would include a picture, but I have somehow misplaced the photo album that has the photos from his Baptism!)

For this new granddaughter we can’t wait to meet, I added that pearl cluster button embellishment. (Originally, if memory serves me, there was a long white satin ribbon there, tied in a bow, fastened in place with a safety pin.) To tell you the truth, I can't believe I never thought to sew any seed pearls onto that gown back when I made it!  (Opportunity missed!)

Our boy didn't have any sort of hat for his Baptism, but I thought I'd use a piece of fabric from my mother-in-law's attic to make a bonnet for his baby girl.  

This was a pillow sham that I took apart.  I love how there are shamrock shapes in the embroidery.
I thought that would make the bonnet match the gown!

I can think of few things that give me more joy than taking a flat piece of fabric and turning it into some garment that can be worn by my grandchildren.  This bonnet was so much fun to make!

Sorry for the photo dump, but as I said: this is a memory-keeping post for me.  Bear with me now...Here are some pictures of one of my porcelain dolls, who is not quite as big as a real newborn baby, modeling the gown and bonnet ensemble.

Well, these precious items are all packed up in a pretty storage box now, ready to load in the car as soon as we get the call that says it's go time.  Please keep our daughter-in-law and her baby in your prayers, for a safe (and relatively easy!) labor and delivery.

Laughter and Tears

If you come here often, you know that our middle son, his wife, and their five adorable young children were living with us temporarily while waiting to move into their new house.  It had been in the process of being built over the past year or so, and was supposed to be finished in time for them to enjoy their first Christmas in it...which it wasn't.  So they spent Christmas at our house.   (And we all got a nasty stomach bug for the holidays, but let's not get into that right now!)

What was supposed to be about a week or two with us stretched into six weeks, and those poor kids were commuting about an hour every day to work and school.  But as of about a week ago, they are all moved into what they hope will be their "forever home," a big, beautiful house on a quiet cul de sac street.  It's just perfect for them, and they are beyond thrilled to be in their own place.

Living at our house was not perfect for them (the sleeping arrangements were a tad dicey); and yet, it was a pretty sweet time for all of us.  We miss seeing them every day.  We miss scenes like these.

Well, that was the "tears" part to which I was referring in the title of this post; but I was being a little dramatic. Because although my husband and I miss seeing this cute little family on a daily basis, they are so much better off where they are.  And it only takes us about 35-40 minutes to make the drive over to visit them at their new house.  So we shall survive the separation!  It's all happy tears, dear readers.

Now for the "laughter" part of this post!

Our middle son and his wife Preciosa decided to give us "an experience" as a Christmas gift, rather then something wrapped up in a package: they got tickets for the four of us to go out on a double date to see Brian Regan, who was performing nearby in mid-January.  (Their wonderful sitter, a mother of grown children, drove all the way to our house to watch their kiddos for them.) They could not have picked a better entertainment experience for us!  Brian Regan has always been one of our very favorite comedians, because he's goofy and hilarious and never resorts to profanity or raunchy jokes.  His comedy is clean enough to be enjoyed even by young children.  We just love him!

We had the best seats, way up in the fourth row.  

Regan hasn't lost a step since we first started following him many years ago.  He was fantastic--doing all new material that we hadn't heard before--and this night out with the kids was a special one that we will always remember.

We all need a lot more laughter in our lives, especially in this anxiety-inducing day and age in which we live.  Thanks so much to these two, who gifted us with a night filled with laughter.  Love, too.  Let's not forget the love!